


BTT Radio

by OneLetteredWonder



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, M/M, Multi, Nyotalia, Oops, not knowing each others names, radio host
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-19 09:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9434819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneLetteredWonder/pseuds/OneLetteredWonder
Summary: It's the one thing Madeline has of him, the station playing over head and his voice filing the air as she works. An honest mistake for them both that they can't find each other. Despite their friends ragging on them for being dumb, neither of them could have predicted they would have never asked for the other's name. An accident, really.





	1. Chapter 1

Madeline smiles as she wipes down the red and white checkered countertop in front of her, turning her head up slightly to spot the speaker in the corner of the ceiling. The radio is blaring, filling the small café with a homey atmosphere even though it's nearing two in the morning. The song ends and Madeline leans against the freshly cleaned counter to listen in carefully to the host.

"You people actually like this shit? Well alright then have another," The host says and Madeline giggles with a small shake of her head. Though this host may be a bit on the risky side, he's her favorite of the hosts to her favorite radio station. It's a locally run channel, broadcasting to the college town they live in. The hosts are very popular and their show actually gets fairly good ratings. It's the only station she allows to be played in her establishment.

When the music starts up again she walks around the counter to start wiping down the few wooden tables they actually have inside. The café she owns is small, a simple hole in the wall kind of place but one of the few open all day and night for those who have lost control of their lives and need caffeine at four in the morning. She's rather a night owl so it works out well for her.

When the song ends once more, she pauses and looks up to the speaker, waiting for the host to make some sort of sarcastic comment. He does and she laughs like every other time. It's her favorite time of day, when she can clean and listen to the man over the speaker.

She grips her rag tight in her hand as the memory once again comes back to her. She remembers like it happened yesterday. Amelia dragged her to some party or another about 3 hours from where they live, telling her it would be the best party ever, then telling her to not drink because they needed a designated driver.

_"Amelia," She sighs and crosses her arms, chiding her sister who simply shrugs and pulls her farther into the throng of people. Madeline is not one for big crowds, finding that she gets lost really easily when forced to intermingle. It's not long into the night that she ends up alone with Amelia already dancing with a group of people in the center of the room. Madeline heads for the kitchen to get herself a water._

_She spends most of the night in the kitchen, barely venturing out to check and see if Amelia is alive and not passed out drunk. Very few people come by that aren't already somewhat buzzed. She hops up onto the counter and pulls her legs to her, not wondering for sure why Amelia takes her places when she knows Madeline isn't very sociable._

_"Aren't you gunna go dance?" She snaps her head up to the white haired boy at the door, leaning up against the frame with a water bottle in his hand and small smirk on his face. She shakes her head letting her hair flow around her shoulders. The boy shrugs and comes closer to lean up to the counter._

_"So you don't dance, you don't drink," He gestures to the water bottle in her hands and she nearly subconsciously hides it. He snickers and her subtle motion._

_"What the fuck you do for fun then?" He smirks up at her and she twits up her nose unimpressed by his words. In the end she shrugs and takes a sip of her water to keep her hands busy._

_"I listen to music," It comes out a little quiet and the boy tilts his head to hear her. Once her words register his face lights up._

_"Me too, damn have you heard about-" He prattles off a few bands that she's actually heard of, prompting her to talk more, much to both their enjoyment. She finds herself giggling and smiling at this strange boy in the kitchen while random people filtered in and out of getting drinks._

_"No but if you listen to music near five in the morning it sounds so much better," She says. He cackles loudly and nods his head._

_"I hear that, music I play at night just sounds better," He flashes her a quick smile and she tilts her head._

_"You play?" She asks, letting her legs down from their crossed position from before. His near red eyes light up once more._

_"Yeah me and a few friends own a local radio station, I do the night shift," He winks at her in an overdramatic way and she scoffs, pushing at his shoulder playfully. He snickers again and rests his arm on her leg in an act of familiarity. She doesn't bother to push him off. He's fairly attractive and oh so mischievously charming. For the remaining hours of the party they talked music, going over their favorite brands and styles, favorite artists and even exchanging a few that the other never heard of before._

_He skips out to go check on his friends and Madeline does the same for Amelia. She finds her sister hanging off a random stranger, cooing about his strength or something when Madeline inturepts the compliemting fest to take her sister home._

_"Did you see him? He was- so- is. Wow he's- wow I just-" Madeline closes the door to the car on her sister, watching as she lays down in the back seat, probably still muttering to herself about the person she clung to._

_"Leaving already?" She whips around at the slightly sad tone to the boy from before now with his hands in his pockets. She nods and vaguely gestures to Amelia in the back seat._

_"Yeah she's a little off it right now. And I have to. We do. Uhm." Her words stumble the closer the boy walks to her. Part of her wants to shy away but she ends up smiling softly at the smirk he has on his face. He rubs the back of his head and then sighs._

_"I wanna try something right quick." He says in a rush of air. Madeline can see it coming and she makes no effort to stop him from grabbing her face, tangling his fingertips in her hair, and pulling her to him. It's a sweet kiss and she melts into it. She places a hand over his when he pulls back, holding it gently._

_"I'll see you later?" He semi-questions taking a step back. She nods and follows suit. Their hands stay linked for another second until Amelia bangs on the door to get her attention. Madeline smiles up at the boy once more, trying to commit his smirk to memory as she finally let's go to get into the car and drive home._

She doesn't have to try hard to remember him. That night she flipped through the stations, not stopping until she heard his voice on the radio. She stayed up the whole night listening to him talk. He sounded so confident, so casual, just like he did when they talked 2 months ago.

Maybe it's a little dumb, but she can't help it. Her heart jumps just a little every time she can hear him speaking, almost as if he's trying to reach her somehow through the speakers. She knows that's not how it works, that someone like him wouldn't do that. They met at a party, a fling at most. The kiss burns inside her mind though, the conversation they had, the soft click she felt with him. It's just a hopeless feeling, but it still makes her happy to hear her favorite songs played by him. She doesn't even know his name and yet her heart still pounds to the beat of the music he airs.

Later in her shift some people come in, looking for a late night caffeine fix and maybe a few sandwiches she can prepare right quick. She sings to herself as she cleans more of the café, letting the customers make themselves at home inside. When she's cleaned everything she stops and listens to the music playing, mentally adding some to her list to look up later. Nearly 6 in the morning is when Amelia comes in, smiling brightly though the customers that will be coming in will be groggy and painful to deal with.

Madeline supresses her sigh when her favorite hosts signs of, passing over the talking to his partner. She'll have to keep her head high until night comes once more and she can lose herself in the songs that he plays.

* * *

"Alright night birds, it's time to go to bed, or get up who knows what you're doing at this time anyway. Until tonight birdies, here's your morning glory~" Gilbert covers the microphone in front of him, leaning over to see through the glass at Antonio smiling his head off and beginning to speak. He takes a deep breath and takes off the headphones squishing his ears to his head, flicking the microphone off finally. He takes a moment to lean back in his swivel chair, taking in the momentary silence until a song starts out slow over the speakers signaling Antonio's morning session has officially started.

He taps on the glass between them and makes a ridiculous face to his friend, getting him to burst into a side splitting laughter and nearly fall off his chair. Gilbert rolls his eyes. There's no one else in the world who can be as cheerful and happy as Antonio is so early in the morning. Luckily he keeps the heavy stuff for a later time, easing people into their mornings with a light mixture of music.

Gilbert sighs and collects his notes through the night, his little tidbits and funny lines he thought of and lists of songs he has to look into getting for them. He catches sight of a napkin scrawled with a playlist and bands given to him 2 months ago. He smiles down at the flimsy thing, folding it carefully to put in his pocket. He takes his more proper list and heads to give it to Matthias.

"Yo loser check these ones out," He throws it at his co-worker, having the paper fly over easily since he folded it into an airplane shape. Matthias fumbles to catch it without crunching it in his hands and waving Gilbert off. He's not actually sure when Matthias sleeps, but he's always on his computer, getting new songs in order and buying the new ones they want. They probably wouldn't have lasted as long without him.

Gilbert catches the first bus back to his rinky apartment, fiddling with the napkin he stowed away. As soon as he gets inside his home he falls to the floor and sprawls out. His job isn't hard but the shifts are long. He's rather in love with what he does. Talk to random people that might be listening, play some music, and chill. With a few minor groans he pulls the napkin up to his face, staring at the scrawl on it. It may be his handwriting, but the words on it came from someone else. He pushes up to find his computer as that night comes back to him.

_He saw her in passing at first, catching just smallest glimpse of her long hair as it disappeared around the corner. He's not sure how she knew about Francis's party and at that moment didn't care, he wanted to find her. He walks around the house, peeking into every corner, trying to find her if only just to see if he didn't imagine her. She didn't look like the girls that normally showed up at Francis's gatherings, he's never seen her before at least._

_He cracks open his water bottle, not wanting to lose his head to fast with beer in his system. It could use some ice though. He heads to the kitchen to see if he can break a few cubes to put in Iit. He freezes in the doorway, finding her sitting on the counter top with her own water in her hands. He can't help the smirk on his face at accomplishing his goal even if only by accident._

_"Aren't you gunna go dance?" He asks from his spot near the door. She snaps her head up to see him and he knocks down the urge to smirk more. When she shakes her head he goes closer, mildly wondering if he's being creepy. He gets a full look at her bright purple eyes and his heart pounds in his chest. She's fucking adorable._

_"So you don't dance, you don't drink," He laughs when she pulls her water closer to her, possibly feeling judged. He has no room to talk with water in his hand as well. It's cute though._

_"What the fuck you do for fun then?" His smirk stays on his face even though she looks down at him with a slightly disgusted expression. Maybe he is coming on a bit strong, but there's no one else here that's sober enough to have a conversation with. He waits patiently for her to find words to say._

_"I listen to music," He has to strain to hear her when she finally does talk but he catches her meaning easily enough. He smiles brightly at her._

_"Me too, damn have you heard about-" Even while the words leave his mouth he starts to internally cringe. He gets on a music topic and he can't stop. It's been his life for the past year or so now and it's the one thing he can sound vaguely smart about. He finishes prattling and waits for her to shut him down but instead a miracle happens._

_"Oh I've heard them before, their fourth album is my favorite, have you heard-" A soft smile comes to her face and he can feel his growing. Someone to engage in a music talk with doesn't happen often and he's going to take it for all it's worth. When she rattles off a few of her favorite songs he remembers them the best he can to write them down later. It's exciting being able to talk to someone so openly about his passion._

_"No but if you listen to music near five in the morning it sounds so much better," She says to him and he laughs loudly, for a moment he thinks she's not real. There's no way he found someone who is so close to his musical soul mate like this._

_"I hear that, music I play at night just sounds better," He smiles at her all real. She gives him a skeptical look._

_"You play?" Her tone is clearly judging him. She lets her legs down from the counter and he shrugs._

_"Yeah me and a few friends own a local radio station, I do the night shift," He winks playfully at her. She scoffs and pushes at his shoulder. Another laugh comes from him and without thinking he places his arm on her leg, not in a super touchy way. He prepares himself to be picked off but she lets him stay there. His excitement seems never ending. She's sweet and cute, and just a little playful, not to mention totally into his music sense. He gets his chance to write down her songs when she takes out her phone to write down a few of the bands he suggested to her. Even if she's just messing with him personally, he's a little happy she takes the music to heart._

_He excuses himself to go find Francis, hoping to high heaven and back his friend isn't plastered drunk and trying to hug someone who does not want to be touched. Luckily he doesn't find that. Antonio is more than willing to snuggle with Francis much to everyone's amusement. He heads back to the kitchen to talk with the girl only to find her gone. He feels crestfallen. Maybe it was dumb to get his hopes up. He turns around and spies her walking away with another girl strung over her shoulder._

_He weaves through the people to get outside, reaching the porch just as she closes the door on the girl now in the backseat. He sighs and takes a chance. She's cool, and seemed partially interested in him too._

_"Leaving already?" He puts his hands in his pockets and smirks as she turns to face him. She nods and waves at the person stuffed in the backseat._

_"Yeah she's a little off it right now. And I have to. We do. Uhm." He walks closer to her as she talks, taking a small sense of pride in the fact her words get jumbled the closer he is. He stops just in front of her to see her face clearly even in the darkness. Sure he could have better ideas, but the one inside his head is a damn good one. He scratches the back of his head and thinks to himself 'fuck it'._

_"I wanna try something right quick." He breathes out. He reaches for her and she doesn't shy away making it seem like a better idea the more he pulls her to him. He can feel his fingers getting tangled in her hair as he presses their lips together. He nearly jumps for joy when she kisses him back. He pulls away and stares down at her, smiling when she grabs his hand gently in a different confirmation that she wanted that too._

_"I'll see you later?" He tries to keep the crack out of his voice. He's not really sad per se to see her go, but he would have liked to talk to her more. It doesn't help his question is probably a big lie and they both know it. They're left holding onto each other's fingers when that girl in the backseat bangs on the window startling them both. She finally lets go and Gilbert feels a different kind of lonely. She smiles up at him and slips inside her car and away from him. He watches her tail lights when he's left with the stunning knowledge that he has no idea what her name is._

He's been mentally cursing himself for that blunder for 2 months. He knows a plethora of her favorite songs but not her name. He downloaded them to a playlist labeled specifically for her. Songs that strike a nerve or songs she suggested. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

Part of him has the stupid hope that she listens to their radio station. Maybe she listens for the music or maybe she listens for him, but he hopes she does. She'll never know he plays music for her now. Just a few days ago he had a whole hour where he played music she outright suggested to him, subtly trying to convey the message he still thinks about her even though it's probably stupid. She might not have been one of the girls or guys Francis tends to go for in a fling, but it had been a party they met at. It could have just been some easy fun for her.

He taps his fingers on his computer to the tune of the song now sounding out in his apartment. Even if he had been just easy fun, he wouldn't mind having more with her.


	2. Chapter 2

Madeline walks into the café around 9 at night with her bag slung over her shoulder. She gives a quick wave to Felicia at the counter fumbling with the register. She quickly nabs her apron and ties it around her waist to go and rescue her co-worker.

"Thank you," Felicia coos when the customer is taken care of. Madeline laughs and pats her head comfortingly. She's only been working at the café a few weeks but she's easily one of the most spirited. The customers love talking to her and it's easy to see why. Felicia has this sweet air about her that makes the customers feel at home inside.

"You can go home if you want, I can handle it," Madeline tells her after she gives the change back to a customer. She turns to start making the drink as Felicia pesters her about if she's sure or not. With a few waves and pushes she manages to get her to go home and sleep after about half an hour. The slowness of the graveyard shift starts to set in.

Madeline really likes her job and her café. She's proud of the establishment her and her sister manage to run. She comes in every night to work. It's one of the slowest and easiest with customers, but it's a little tedious. There's not a lot to do besides clean and make sure no weirdos make a mess. Amelia would never be able to handle it, she's too bouncy and energized to sit still for long periods of time.

Madeline hums to herself, her eyes closed as she listens to the boy over the speaker, talking about something or another that he saw today and she barely lets herself hope he's talking to her. She sighs, turning on her heel to make herself a cup of hot chocolate. The door dings when it's opened.

"Madeline holy fuck." She laughs and glances over her shoulder at Lovino coming into the place. He drops his bag to the ground and clunks his head to a table near the counter.

"Who the fuck decides it's okay to schedule three essays in one fucking week, do the teachers talk to each other!?" He pads his hands on the table as he complains. She shakes her head sadly and goes about making Lovino's extra caffeinated coffee. He's mumbling into his arms about his classes as she places the cup in front of him and takes a seat across with her own drink warming her hands. They've been friends for a few years now, meeting when they both entered college as freshmen. Lovino had to take another year to complete all of his courses and by that time his little sister Felicia joined him.

"Are you okay?" She asks simply, already smiling because she knows the answer if the death glare Lovino gives her is anything to go by. Instead of yelling and cursing like he might have in a different setting and if she didn't ask, he grabs his coffee and takes one big gulp despite it still being fairly hot. She winces a little for his pour throat.

"Fuck school." He says bitterly. She laughs gently and takes a small sip of her hot beverage. She already did the college scene, getting a degree in hotel and restaurant management. It's how she managed to get her café up and running in a good time so close out of school. It also helped she started running it half way through school to get a hands on experience for the field she decided to go in.

"Come on you know you don't mean that," She reassures. Lovino makes a face at her close to a sneer.

"Yes I fucking do. All these god damn classes and math." He hisses in general. Madeline sighs and smiles brightly to a group that enters. She takes their orders quickly and then sets about making their drinks as quick as she can so they don't have to have cold hands. Once they're on their way she takes a seat back with Lovino, tilting her head to the speaker to listen to the radio.

"I guess it's time for random radio hour then huh? Let's do this shit. Who wants to hear songs that have no business being aired?" Madeline smiles up at the speaker, trying not to let her thoughts over weigh on her.

"You still hung up on that pansy ass?" Lovino asks suddenly snapping her out of her daze. She blinks at him as he takes another big gulp of his coffee. He raises an eyebrow at her when she doesn't answer.

"You are. Why? You barely know him," Lovino taps his finger on the table as if to prove how serious his point is. Madeline laughs awkwardly and faces down. Of course she knows very little about her crush. Her feelings would probably run deeper if she knew more.

"You know why. He was just, so fun to talk to," She turns her cup in her hands. Lovino scoffs and reaches for his bag. She takes her cue to let him work on his school work in the sanity of the café in peace. She wipes down the counter and the tables not occupied. It's later in the night does Lovino leave with a simple wave of his hand and then Madeline is alone.

She wraps her arms around herself and closes her eyes. The song playing is not one she knows but she likes the sound of it. On a spare napkin she writes down a few of the lyrics in order to look it up later.

"I like that one, it's weird," He says over the radio. She rolls her eyes.

"You know what else is weird? The ocean. What kind of freaky shit is down there?" She can't fight the smile on her face as the host talks to himself like there is someone to answer back.

"Anyway here's an ocean song," The music starts and Madeline inhales sharply. She knows this one, she suggested this one to him. She rubs at her face, not crying, but not wanting to start for no reason. There's not much point in getting emotional. So he likes the music, big deal. She whispers along to the song, a bitter sweet smile on her face as it comes to an end.

"Gotta admit, that song brings back memories, so I guess thanks," The song starts and Madeline finds herself laughing at the terrible segway joke.

"Get it? Thanks for the memories?" She covers her mouth with her hand to quit her giggles as a customer comes in. They fumble over their words as they order then take a seat in the corner of the café and watch out the window. Madeline brings them their order when she finishes making it, making a small conversation asking them what brings them inside this late. They shrug and give small answers. She doesn't need to be told again that they want to be left alone.

The sun is starting to peak when Amelia walks in, nearly shouting her greeting. She's lucky Madeline has been awake for a long time otherwise she would get the meanest glare imaginable.

"I still don't know how you manage to be an absolute ray of sunshine so early," Madeline yawns. She's not particularly tired, but she has been standing for quite a while. Amelia laughs brightly and wraps an arm over her shoulder.

"It's cause I'm magic~" She teases and Madeline pushes her sister away. Not long after does the beginning morning rush come flowing in. Amelia takes most of the orders, moving back every so often to help get drinks made. They set an easy rhythm, used to working together over the years. Madeline shoulders her bag when the last trickle of the rush ends, waving bye to Amelia at the counter to handle the rest of her shift alone.

Once home Madeline curls up on her bed with her laptop next to her. She finds the songs she liked during the night, saving them to a small playlist that reminds her of that boy so many nights ago.

* * *

"Get it? Thanks for the memories?" Gilbert flips off his microphone and cackles to himself over his own stupid joke. His tiny laugh turns into a full on stomach hurting cackle. It's not that funny, but the fact he laughed in the first place makes it so much funnier. He leans back in his chair and looks at his playlist to find the song that goes on next to be able to introduce it properly.

He sings quietly to himself along to the lyrics of the song, his singular memory of her playing in his mind. He made a small shout out to her, wondering if she actually heard it or of he's fooling himself into believing she might be listening. He sighs and fakes a tone of voice for the audience. When the new song is playing and his microphone is off he glances up at Antonio with his face plastered to the glass, making it look squished.

Gilbert snorts and laughs at him. Antonio rubs his face and enters the sound booth when he finds a moment.

"You're jokes are terrible mi amigo," He teases and sits on the floor. Gilbert shrugs good naturedly.

"Someone out there laughed besides me," He winks and swivels in his chair to introduce one of the last songs he will pay for the day.

"Still thinking about that lil sweetheart?" Antonio tilts his head with a smile on his face, not meaning to make Gilbert upset with his question. Gilbert sighs and nods his head.

"Yeah I guess so. She was so damn cute," He hides his face in his hands as a small hint of heat races up. He glares half heartedly when Antonio laughs at him.

"Why have you not called her out while live?" Gilbert grits his teeth to the question. He's been debating that for himself for a while. The nagging thought she may not be listening keeps him shackled. Antonio shrugs at the lack of answer and picks himself up.

"You know one of these days Francis is going to do it for you," He sticks his tongue out and Gilbert flips him off in the most friendly of ways. He finishes up his shift, passing off the show to Antonio for the morning. He's collecting his things when to his surprise Francis walks into his sound booth.

"Franny!" He cheers in greeting. Francis laughs and takes a seat in his lap like the clingy cuddly person he is. They talk for a few minutes about work and how their shifts are going, not entirely hearing each other often because of they way they run the show. Francis takes the afternoon and evening shift, playing a wide selection of music with a special hour just for requested love songs for couples that listen in. Every other day or so he does a live reading and advice hour that is surprisingly popular.

"Do you have any words of romance for your little lost love bug?" Francis coos and Gilbert shoves him off his lap.

"She's not my love bug you ass," He smirks though he wishes his words weren't true. Francis laughs at him and picks himself up to go about his day. Gilbert is quick to follow, dropping off his playlist and new songs for Matthias who just waves at him and shouts something incoherent after being jacked up on 5 hour energy.

On the bus ride home Gilbert looks out the window and tries to think of other things, but there are just some things that remind him of her. The color of the canopy over a flower shop is just the right shade of purple, that passing stranger has just a small off shade of her hair. The little reminders are everywhere. Maybe he is fooling himself. If she wanted to get in contact with him she would have done so already. He blows out a puff of air.

Even though he would like to keep thinking about the 'what if' of her, perhaps it is time to get over it. They only met for a few hours. There's no basis there for anything other than a fun conversation. He grits his teeth as he collapses onto his apartment floor. Yeah right, as if he could believe that. She had practically been his music soul mate. What a rotten thing to lose.

He eventually manages to pick himself up to take a shower and clean his living space. It's not dirty but it could use a good cleaning. He spends his morning doing that. After he heads out to the store, needing to restock his fridge. He can't help it, peeking around every corner like it might hold the secret to where she is hiding. He knows Francis lives an hour away from him meaning she lives far enough away to not see her about, but it's a nice thought.

He gets recognized only once this time, the cashier recognizing the way his voice sounds from listening in so often. It's an interesting reaction but one he doesn't really get tired of. Meeting people is always really fun for him, it gives him the chance to figure out what people really like about the show they provide.

Back at home he flops face first to his low level bed. He's exhausted. He stayed up all night obviously. Maybe his work schedule isn't the best for his sleep schedule, but he always did like the night life more. With the sun trying to get through his curtains he falls asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hello again," Madeline greets to the man in front of her. For the past week or so this person has been stopping by frequently either for a drink or a small pastry or sandwich. They take a seat by the window and wait there for hours, sometimes reading, other times just people watching.

"Ello, a coffee, please," They say and Madeline sets to work in making them a cup as they trudge over to the window seat. There is a lull in the flow of customers so Madeline feels free to take her own hot chocolate over to the stranger and takes a seat by him.

"You've been coming in here for a while now, but I don't think I've caught your name," She says sweetly offering them a small smile. They blink at her then smile to their drink.

"My name is Ivan," They say. He takes his cup and blows softly over the rim of it to cool down his coffee.

"I'm Madeline. Do you live around here?" He shakes his head to that, looking out the window before responding.

"Nyet, not entirely. I've been-" they cut themselves off, hiding their face in a large scarf around their neck. Madeline takes a sip of her drink and waits for them to continue.

"There is someone who comes in here that I am looking for," He glances at her and Madeline finds the blush on his face a little cute.

"Who? Maybe I can help?" She leans forward a little, eager to know more information. Ivan hides his face just a little more.

"You will think I am weird," He says and Madeline laughs with a shake of her head. Ivan judges her quickly then sighs.

"I do not know her name, but she was really sweet to me, even though I think she was tipsy." Ivan mutters. Madeline narrows her eyes at the description.

"I've seen her in passing coming here, and I've been trying to see if it is her." He goes on to explain as if it would make the situation less weird. While Madeline is a little odded out that Ivan is looking for someone who was not sober at their time of talking, she's not going to judge out loud.

"Can you describe her? Maybe if I see someone with her description I can intercept a little," She smiles brightly as Ivan looks to her with a look of wonderment on his face. He sits up close to her suddenly, staring at her like she just said she could go into space.

"You would help me?" He asks. She nods her head with a soft laugh. He smiles in relief.

"She's loud, not shy at all. Short hair and a really sunny smile," He says getting a little lost in his memory of her. Madeline hums and commits the small description to memory to see if she can spot someone like that.

"I'll see what I can do," She reassures and takes her cup back to the counter. The rest of the hour Ivan sits in corner is spent with more of a smile on his face. The sun is starting to come up and he packs his things. Amelia bursts in the door just as he opens it, nearly running into the poor man.

"Hey sorry about that big guy," She says loudly. Madeline raises an eyebrow to the starstruck look on Ivan's face as Amelia comes closer to the counter. She looks over her sister, then drags her eyes back to Ivan still in the doorway. Amelia walks to the back room to get her apron. As soon as she's out of sight Madeline points the way she went. Ivan puffs up in a blush and nods, leaving soon after.

"Man was that guy okay I knocked him pretty badly," Amelia comes back out, whispering just a bit more. Madeline sighs and smiles at her sister, having no idea the gravity of the situation.

"Yeah he seemed fine," She says and Amelia releases a breath of air in relief.

"Do you not recognize him?" Amelia pauses in her making of a cup of coffee to give Madeline a skeptical look.

"Nooo?" She makes an odd face. Madeline shrugs, brushing off her question easily.

"Thought I saw him somewhere before." It's a small lie. She hasn't really seen Ivan before, but that doesn't mean Amelia hasn't either. They move past the conversation to take care of the morning customers as they pile in but her mind races. She tries to figure out just exactly where Amelia would have met such a person. If Amelia didn't remember then she must have been drunk to an extreme level, which means Madeline would have been there with her. The last time they went to a party that crazy had been 2 months ago.

Madeline glances at her sister, smiling brightly and dealing with an onslaught of crabby awake young adults. There is a chance she tacked onto some stranger at that party, prompting them to try and find her again. Maybe Ivan doesn't realize how weird it is to stalk Amelia to where she lives. She's a little worried for her sibling, but even with alcohol, Amelia can handle herself. Maybe she'll talk to Ivan about it later to make sure.


	4. Chapter 4

Gilbert wakes with a start, sitting up and accidentally making his head spin. He flops back down to his bed with a groan. He lays with his arm over his face while his mind stops buzzing from the rush. When he finally manages to crawl off the couch he heads to the kitchen with a yawn, making himself a nice cup of hot chocolate to wake himself up more. He scratches wildly at his hair making it seem more crazy than normal. It's nearly 5 in the afternoon.

For a little while he messes around on the computer, checking out new music and the stats for the radio station. Locally running it took a lot of effort at first. Not many people listened to them and business wouldn't run commercials for them. They somehow managed to gain an influx of listeners over the past year or so. Maybe the tiny little town they live in doesn't need the high fancy regular stations. They offer a good mix of music and variety at all times of day.

Gilbert smirks to himself and packs up his bag to head to the station now. He keeps his head low on the bus, tapping his fingers to the music pounding in his ears. He puts his hands in his pockets and walks the rest of the way to the front doors, pushing them open with a dramatic flair.

"I know it seems like I live here but you come in so early," Matthias teases when Gilbert walks by the door. He cackles and walks backwards to lean against the door frame. In the corner of Matthias's paper littered room is a small girl with short light blonde hair who looks utterly displeased to be there.

"Hey Lene I didn't think you'd visit today," Gilbert greets her. She glances up at him with cold eyes and huffs turning away. Matthias laughs at her action and pulls her hand to cuddle into her stomach. She smacks the back of his head but he doesn't let go. Gilbert takes his leave of the, what he assumes to be, happy couple. He passes by the window of where Francis is set up. He leans on his elbows to watch his friend work.

Francis has papers scattered about him as well, but in a more organized manner of specific piles. He's meticulous in the way he works that Gilbert can tell exactly where he is in his show. He's not sure why Francis does it but, he allows people to send in letters to loved ones or to ask advice and answers them aloud on the show. It seems like a cheesy idea, but they get a fair amount of letters to their P.O. box. Sometimes Francis will even take live calls for the fun of it.

When the song plays over head signaling Francis has turned off his microphone and it's safe to go into the booth without fear of the listeners hearing, Gilbert enters.

"Sup Franny?" He greets in that polite manner he is so obviously known for. Francis blows him a kiss sarcastically.

"You just missed the most adorable description," He says with a wave of his hands. Gilbert snorts and shakes his head. He doubts that.

"When are you going to give me a description of your lovely little lady?" Francis teases. Gilbert flips him off.

"I'm not going to do that and you know it." Francis sighs dramatically and waves him out as the song is ending. Gilbert closes the door but presses his face up against the glass, smearing it with his gross faces. It's Francis's turn to flip him off. He snickers and heads to the small office area where they store the playlists for the future. He finds his new one for the night and skims through it, finding a few of the songs he suggested up and ready inside. He smirks, excited for the night.

10'o clock rolls around and Gilbert is in the other booth, bouncing up and down and ready to get rolling for the night. He can hear Francis do his sign off through his headphones and flips on his microphone at the proper moment.

"What's up night birds, how are you guys doing so far tonight? Don't answer that people might think you're talking to yourself." The words prattle out of his mouth naturally, like he's talking to just one person over the multitude of listeners they actually have. College kids make bad decisions, and one of them happens to be staying up late doing homework or getting food or both. The radio provides an adequate less lonely feel to that.

He begins to play music, tapping his hands to his knees to the beat. He waves bye to Francis as his partner takes his leave, probably going to bed for the night. Very rarely do they have time to hang out and be friends together. It takes a lot of planning to be able to take days off and lots of pre-recording. They can do it when necessary, but it's a tedious job.

Gilbert smirks at the next chunk of time set aside. After the next few songs. It's one of his favorite parts of the night. He's not sure how it got started, but he's sure it started when he got a caller nearing 2 in the morning. He didn't know how to respond having never got a call before and answered in a simplistic way that nearly got them cancelled. However it made the night's ratings raise so they gave him his own little segment.

"Alright everyone after this song it 2 am you know what that means, it's time for 'why the fuck are you still up?' Get ready to hear people's crazy stories of the night." He plays the last song and gets prepared to answers calls and listen to the weird things people are doing in the night. The song ends and he bounces in his swivel chair. His headphones are buzzing with the notice of his first person ready to talk.

"Hey alright we got our first caller," He presses a button on the control pad in front of him. "You're on live with BTT Radio, why the fuck are you still up?" He jerks as a loud click comes through telling him the caller hung up without talking. It's silent for a second as his mind processes what just happened.

"Well shit I guess they changed their mind, let's get someone new," It takes a moment but a voice actually comes through this time. Studying for classes like usual, but this time with more food than they can eat. Classic.

* * *

Since Felicia had to do class things, Madeline took her shift, working the last tail end of the day as well as her regular night shift. Her feet are going to hurt so badly but it'll be okay. Felicia will probably make dinner for her because of it and her cooking is always amazing.

Lovino comes in a furry, ordering coffee and food and taking out his books immediately. Soon enough his hands are in his hair and he's grumbling to himself over the stupidity of something or another. Madeline watches him work for a moment then takes over his order, hopefully not startling him into knocking it off the table.

"What are you working on?" She asks gently to get his attention and put the food down when he's paying attention. It's barely out of her hands before he takes the coffee and chugs half of it though it's scalding hot. She winces but Lovino seems to pay no mind to the burn.

"I don't get it. I don't get math, fuck this shit I fucking hate math who decided-" His ramblings are cut off by his own annoyance, pulling at his hair and gritting his teeth. Madeline sighs and nearly tells him to take a break when a loud bang is heard. She turns around to see Amelia hanging onto the edge of the wall separating the back room with a starry glow in her eyes.

"Did someone say math?" She waltzes over to where they are and looks down at the book in front of Lovino. She claps and takes a seat next to him. The conversation is soon lost on Madeline as her finance and math major sister takes over tutoring her best friend. She watches with a smile as they get along for once and Lovino is finally understanding his class. He's been struggling for a while, trying to keep up and always just barely passing his exams. Maybe with Amelia's help he can do better.

Madeline huffs to herself. She still wants to talk to Ivan before she mentions anything to Amelia. He's come in more often in the morning, finding the right time to be there before Amelia is coming in to go to work. She has no idea what Ivan does with his time or how he can manage and afford to come get coffee nearly every morning. It's concerning. She's going to have to find time to ask him about that.

Tomorrow is Sunday, meaning they actually close for a while, letting their workers sleep in until the afternoon rolls around. It's the one time they are actually fully closed. Good thing cause it's really late in the night when Amelia and Lovino call it quits, having gotten the material nearly all done with.

"Oh shit," Amelia runs to the back room and Madeline rolls her eyes, wondering just what her sister forgot this time. She flips her rag over her shoulder as the radio plays its last song before one of her favorite parts of the night comes around. She's not sure why it's a section of his station, but it's really funny to her.

"Maddie hey can you take this right quick?" Amelia hands her the phone to the café and she holds it up to her ear, ready to go on the spiel she says when they get calls, only to hear the phone ringing instead. She gives Amelia a skeptical look for the devilish grin she has on her face when the ringing stops.

"You're on live with BTT Radio, why the fuck are you still up?" Madeline wastes no time in hanging up. She holds the phone at arms length wide eyed as the radio station plays overhead.

"Well shit I guess they changed their mind, let's get someone new." It's those words that make Madeline realizes exactly what just happened. She drops the phone to the counter and covers her mouth with her hands, staring at her sister and Lovino, both sporting matching unimpressed looks.

"What did you do?" She asks a little breathlessly at being scared so badly. Lovino makes a disgusted face at her.

"What did we do? What did you do! You hung up on him!" He throws his hands up in an incredulous fashion. Madeline covers her whole face and shakes her head. There's no way that just happened.

"You've been listening to that dude talk on the radio for months now and never called in." Amelia points out with her arms now crossed over her chest. Of course she hasn't called in. It's scary to think he might hear her, that he might recognize her voice and think she's weird. Or worse, not recognize her.

"Come on Maddie, own up and call him! Just ask for a song request or something! Make it nonchalant! Aaggh," Amelia goes off. She collects her things and does a two finger salute as she leaves the café for the night. Madeline whines and drops her head to the counter.

"Seriously though, seeing you pine is sad," Lovino remarks. She lifts her head to see him walk outside as well, leaving her alone with the sound of his voice filling the building. Her heart is still pounding from being so close to talking to him once again.

Her mind races the whole night, playing with the phone in her hands when she doesn't have to talk to customers. Amelia's words are echoing inside her mind and she's tempted to follow through. She bites her lip and holds her fingers over the buttons she memorized long ago though she never called. She takes a deep breath, and puts the phone down.

She can't do it. Not right now, not tonight. She needs to mentally prepare herself for such a nerve wracking thing. She shakes out her hands as she collects her things and actually shuts down the machines and turns off the lights. She locks the building up nice and tight, staring into the now dark room with a small amount of pride. She pats the door and then finds the nearest blue light around campus. She presses the button for the non emergency police line.

She greets the driver easily, having known them since every time she needs a ride back to her home late at night it's him driving. Most of the time she felt fine walking, but it's still dark out and she's not fond of walking in the dark. Berwald doesn't say much and that's okay, Madeline is able to make nice conversation with him anyway. Every so often his wife Tina will come in and order a sweet coffee and maybe a small sandwich before heading down to work at the shooting range. She says goodbye politely and like every time he nods his head in a farewell to her too.

She peels off her work clothes and lays face first in bed, excited to be able to sleep in for a long time. Her heart pounds just a little harder at the clear cut memory of his voice in her ear. Tomorrow, she'll have the courage to call.


	5. Chapter 5

Ivan plays with the hem of his shirt, taking quick peeks over at the counter where she is there, smiling and laughing at something a customer said even though most of the people in the café are in a groggy state of being awake. He twirls his cup in his hands, nervous as ever, and wanting desperately to go over there to get her attention. Madeline he believes the other is called, said she would help him in his endeavor but he's not heard much back from her about that.

There are plenty of other things he can be doing with his time, but she's stuck on his mind. He's knows it's a little odd to have, in a way, followed her to this establishment but he didn't mean to. He had truly been going around the state in search of places that played the radio station's music. Seeing her there had been merely coincidence and now he doesn't want to leave.

He finishes his coffee, prepared to his liking in an amazing fashion and stands to leave, placing his dishes in the tub by the door. He grits his teeth and does his best to not look back at her as he leaves. Curse him for being so shy.

"Ivan!" He jerks at the call of his name. He relaxes considerably when he finds it's just Madeline who called his name. He smiles politely to her as she comes closer.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment?" She tilts her head and he nods though his stomach turns. They walk in pace with each other down the street in no particular direction. He finds himself fidgeting with his sleeve ends, a nervous habit he's not even sure where it came from.

"How do you know Amelia?" His heart lurches in his chest, committing the human ray of sunshine's name to memory. He laughs a little uneasily, recalling exactly how they met in such awkward circumstances.

_Ivan didn't really want to go to Francis's party. He has enough trouble socializing with people one-on-one there's no way he could do it with a large group. Francis insisted though as the manager of the building they work out of, even if he doesn't entirely get along with all the residents. He says his pleasantries to Gilbert and the other likewise, then they go their separate ways. Ivan tries to make himself as comfortable as he can in a corner of the room with a small cup of water in his hands._

_He doesn't get how to socialize. It doesn't come easy. He comes off wrong to everyone it seems and no matter what he says he offends someone. He wants to be friends but he can't get his words in the right order. He turns his cup in his hands. Blending into the wall seems to be the best option for him._

_His being ignored, tragically, doesn't last the whole night. Some group of others who managed to be invited or heard about the party come up to him. He tries to be polite and say the right things but instead they start to tease him. He doesn't get why either, and that makes it so much worse. He goes over the conversation in his head as they start to poke at him, pushing him to say something else but he doesn't know what to say. The words won't come out._

_"Hey!" A loud voice echoes over them as he's grabbed by one of the troublemakers. They all turn their attention to a small girl just a few feet away. She's got her arm wrapped around another girl's waist, a drink in her hand that is not steady in the slightest. Ivan grimaces now fully embarrassed, only thankful that even though they are causing a scene, not many people seem to be paying attention to them._

_"What are you doing to him?" She asks angrily though her words are slightly slurred together. One of the group picking on him scoffs and waltzes over. Ivan wants to tell them to back off but he can't even find the words to defend himself._

_"Look doll," He places an arm around her shoulder and her blue eyes light up in fire. "Stay out of this okay? Why don't you and I-" He doesn't get to finish his sentence. While talking, the mysterious girl handed off her drink to her friend. She grabs the intruder's arm, spinning him over and slamming him to the ground. Ivan's jaw drops and he's let go by the others._

_"You have no permission to touch me," She spits out, stumbling back. She grabs her drink from her friend and turns to Ivan. He's scared as she faces him but then her feet catch under her and she trips into him. He grabs her shoulders to hold her up, jerking back when he realizes he's touching her._

_"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to touch you and I-" She places a hand over his mouth to stop his yabbering. He lets out a small whimper, hoping she doesn't flip him over too. She blinks up at him._

_"Are you okay?" She drawls out. He nods his head to answer her question. She releases a breath of air and then leans her head on his shoulder._

_"Why are you so big? How did you get tall? I wanna be tall, I'm short," She blabbers off drunk. He's frozen in his spot. She giggles randomly and then pokes at his chest._

_"You're pretty, like really gorgeous," She lifts her head up to smile brightly at him. Heat rises to his cheeks as she giggles again and snuggles into his side, forcing his hand around her waist to hold her up cause she's clearly not on stable footing. He doesn't say much of anything, actually quite preferring the random sentences that spill out of her mouth instead of the clumsy ones that come out of his._

_She hangs on him most of the night, tapping his chest and saying random things interjected with odd compliments. He's never had someone compliment him this much. It's nearly unsettling. She giggles again and kisses his cheek._

_"I'd like to see you sober cause sober me would really like you too." Ivan nods his head to her words. He finally bulks up the courage to say something back to her when she's pulled out of his arms. He blinks at the empty space she once occupied only to spy her being ushered out of the house. He follows blindly. There's a lump stuck in his throat as he watches the car drive away with the human sunshine in the backseat. He feels at a loss._

_"Ivan what are you doing out here?" He snaps his attention to Gilbert in the front yard. He can ask him the same thing._

_"Sunshine is gone," Is what he manages to say. Gilbert raises an eyebrow to his odd sentence, then sighs with a nod of his head._

_"Yeah yeah let's go back inside." He whines, looking where the tail lights have disappeared and follows Gilbert into the house._

Madeline stays silent as he recounts the story. She narrows her eyes at the sidewalk in front of them and Ivan thinks he said the wrong thing. He didn't mention all the details, but still he wonders if he said too much. He wrings his hands together.

"How did you end up out here?" She asks gently. He takes a deep breath, a few of them to get himself to calm down properly enough to talk.

"Radio, seeing who listens," He says shakily. He catches a small look of worry in her expression and hides his face in his hands.

"Are you alright? Do you need to sit down?" He shakes his head and takes out his phone. He's surprised when she stays by him, letting him type out his words as best he can with shaky fingers. His hands tremble as he passes the device over. She takes it and reads what he wrote carefully about his anxiety.

"Ohh okay, I understand," She smiles up at him. He tries to smile back but ends up just grimacing instead.

"Words are not strong," He says awkwardly. She hands him back his phone and he sets about typing out his reason for being there. Owning the buildings that a few radio shows are hosted in, deciding who gets air time, as well as being one of the owners of a company that has some pull in the advertisements, he decided to make a trek around the state, stopping at certain places that tend to play the station more often than not.

In his endeavors he came across the café. Just a little over 2 months ago, the café started to play the station non stop. He wanted to see what kind of place would run their show. It grated his nerves to hear Gilbert's voice over the speakers, but then she walked in. Amelia. He couldn't bring himself to leave just yet, not when she felt so close.

"Okay good you didn't just stalk her here," Madeline laughs and Ivan panics. He waves his hands back and forth, trying to convey that's not what he intended at all even though it seems that way. Oh he should have explained sooner. He feels disgusting. What kind of person would he be to do that to someone like her?

"Hey hey easy, I understand now, it's alright," Madeline raises her arms up to stop his flurrying movements. He shakes a little and holds his arms around himself. He's a little grateful that Madeline is accepting.

"Will you help?" He sputters out. She smiles and nods her head. Intense relief washes over him and he takes her hand quickly giving it a squeeze.

"Thank you," He mutters. She giggles in good spirits and turns back towards the café. He rubs his hands together on his walk back to the small motel he decided to make home in. It's a nice little town they have here, college students and small businesses. He glances up at the sky taking in the darker clouds, wondering if it will rain or snow first. He wraps his scarf around his neck tighter.

He hopes he doesn't make a bad impression on Amelia now that she's sober and can remember him. He wouldn't know how to deal with that kind of embarrassment. What if she thinks he's weird? The anxiety within him builds a little more as he makes it inside his motel. He scrambles for a pad of paper, writing down his thoughts as best he can with an unsteady hand. Maybe he can use the radio show to help him get his words out.

* * *

Amelia swears that if she doesn't get the attention of that smoking hot tall dude who only ever orders a coffee by the end of the week she is going to just go over to him and sit on his lap to ask him on a date right then and there.

She groans dramatically as he leaves yet again without looking back, plopping down on the counter. He's been coming in consistently for the past week or so now and yet he hasn't said anything to her and she can't for the life of her get him to glance her way. What does she have to do to get him to see her? She already laughs too loudly and talks too much. She can't be any more obnoxious without getting complaints for her attitude.

She sighs a little sadly, going over to the tub to collect the dirty dishes inside it. Normally it's really easy for her to get someone's attention. She could go over and talk to him as easy as anything and yet she can't. When her sister asked if she recognized him, she had a brief flash of a memory but nothing more. Her mind wants to remember but she knows that once she drinks a little too much the night won't come back to her. Not in full pieces at least.

_The boy lands on his back and she takes her drink back from the cute girl that helped her stand not 10 minutes ago. She planned to flirt with her the rest of the night but the mention of a boyfriend put her off. Now this person in the corner needs her protection. She fumbles her way to him, finding his face eventually and seeing stars. Gorgeous and tall with muscle she can feel and pudge. He stole her heart with the first stutter of words that spilled out of him._

After that she remembers waking up at home and wanting to throw up. Thank god she didn't have to work that day. It would have been miserable with the headache that arched across her cranium. In any other circumstance she would have been able to go in but that night really messed with her system.

She likes working at the café that Maddie technically owns more than she does. She just really takes care of the monetary paperwork. Numbers come so easily to her, not even really needing the register to make transactions. She scared the crap out of Felicia once when the register went down and she just did all the calculations in her head. She might have scared a few other people that day too.

She has a longer shift today. Alice will be coming in later to take over but for now she has to deal with the in between breakfast and lunch slow down by herself. She keeps busy by cleaning the machines and wiping down tables and counters. She finds a few minutes to go to the back and run the dishwasher a couple of times until new customers come inside.

They are a little dead looking, with bags still fresh under their eyes and ordering some stronger styled coffee. She smiles brightly and sets to making those to-go for them. Another aspect that might scare customers in a not so frightening way is the amount of happiness she can have so early in the morning. Never once has she shown up at work at 6 in the morning without a smile on.

She finds it rather easy to wake up so early. Of course she goes to bed at a good time more often than not. It also helps she can make a wicked cup of coffee at home too that snaps her senses into overdrive. She rather finds it nice waking up with the sun. It gives her a sense that she has done more in her day when she's awake for all of the daylight.

Her cheerful attitude also helps when she gets customers from hell, who gripe at her much like this gentleman in front of her is doing. He's going off about the way they serve coffee for those who like to stay inside, saying they should use to-go cups for them too. Amelia simply shrugs and gets over the insults. It isn't her idea to serve different cups for staying customers, and frankly she thinks it's a cute idea.

"What if I spill it? It's going to burn and going to be all your fault for not giving good cups," He says without ordering and now holding up the small line behind him. Amelia suppresses her urge to sigh and make a snide comment.

"It's not her fault you don't know how to use a god damn cup." Amelia bites her tongue to keep from laughing out loud at the lack of class Lovino has. He cocks his head to the side when the man turns to glare at him from behind another customer, not caring about the looks he receives. The complainer walks out without ordering anything. Though the business is lost, Amelia thinks it might be worth it.

"Thank you," She whispers softly when Lovino is up to order. He brushes off her words with a wave of his hand, ordering his super double shot espresso to go with a bitter look on his face.

"I have that math exam today and I'm going to _die,_ _"_ He growls out. Amelia shakes her head and laughs softly.

"Just remember your formulas and you should be fine." She winks playfully at him and he takes his coffee with a sneer, tipping his head back for a gulp the moment he can. She winces just a little for his poor taste buds. How in the world he can drink scalding hot coffee is beyond her. Maybe it helps with waking up but she isn't careless enough to try.

The lunch rush is starting to show signs of coming when Alice arrives. Her stuffy co-worker takes charge of making drinks, finding her ability of preciseness very useful in getting the proper blends put together. They work near silently together, not talking unless about orders. They gives small smiles to each other that make it nice though.

With the last trickle of people leaving Alice stands next to her with her arms crossed. Amelia copies her positions with a slight smirk on her face.

"How's your head from that dumb night of yours?" Alice chides, placing a hand to her forehead to feel for a temperature. Amelia sputters a laugh and pushes her off.

"I'm totally fine! Even though I can't hold liquor well I can still hold my own better than most," She sticks her tongue out and Alice bops her in the back of the head. Amelia laughs and doesn't remind Alice that the party had been a few months ago. Alice worries too much honestly. At least someone does though. She's like the mother of those that work at the café even though it's technically Madeline's business and building. Also the fact she's younger than both of them, but yet actually a mother. She always frets over Amelia's recklessness or Felicia's clumsiness or Madeline staying up so late. Amelia sighs softly and looks out the windows.

There has to be some way to get Maddie and that stupid radio dude she likes to listen to talking again. She's heard the story already about him and her talking during that party she can't remember. Maddie just had to hang up that night, ruining all progress they could have had. She twists up her nose in a pout. There has to be a way to get her to see reason.

"Thank you all for joining me for 'Love Letter' hour, let's see who needs help today," The host over radio says. Amelia glances up at the speaker in the corner of the room and a wicked idea comes to her. She takes a quick break to text out a long detailed plan to Lovino. It's not until she gets off of work does he respond, telling her the plan is a go. She laughs mischievously to herself, already formulating the letter in her head.


	6. Chapter 6

Now on most days Gilbert wakes up by his own doing. Either falling off the couch he crashed on or just having his body being angry at him for sleeping on the floor when he has a perfectly good bed just a room away. Today neither of those happened, though he did fall asleep on the floor. His phones buzzes like an angry hornets nest next to his head, making him dizzy when his head leaves the floor. He smacks his hand on the electronic, somehow pressing the right button and holds it to his ear.

"Whhhyyyy," He says into the speaker, not bothering to say hello. There's a gentle giggle on the other end.

"Aw Gilly did we wake you?" Antonio coos. There's another laugh behind him and Gilbert groans, sitting up like a zombie. The phone is shuffled and Francis's voice comes over next.

"You need to get down here and hear this." The phone makes a click noise and Gilbert is left staring at it in his lap with a dumbfounded expression. This better be some kind of emergency in order to wake him up and get him out of his apartment. It takes a few tries for him to get the energy to even move from the floor. He debates crawling to the shower instead of actually getting up.

He walks to work instead of taking the bus just to spite his co-workers and friends. The big grey building comes into view and he smiles despite his earlier feelings. Even if he's miffed about being awake, he really does like his friends and their stupid antics. Fuck knows it had been his crazy idea to start a radio show in the first place, broadcasting out of Antonio's attic from day one.

"This better be good Franny," He says once he steps into the recording booth. Francis merely giggles at his annoyance. He takes a seat by Antonio on the floor, spreading his limbs out and relaxing as Francis hosts the session.

"Coming up, we go to 'Love Letter' hour, my little sweets, hope you stick around," Francis muses into the microphone and once the machine is flicked to standby Gilbert pretends to gag, throwing himself on Antonio's lap dramatically. Francis makes a face at him, shaking his head to express his maturity to such an act. Antonio however giggles.

"Why am I here again?' He asks once more since he never really got an answer the first time. Francis and Antonio share a quick sneaky glance and then smile at him.

"Wait for it," Antonio says. As much as he would rather dip out right now just to make them mad, his curiosity is now piqued and he has to see it through, whatever stupid plan they have for him. It takes about an another half hour for Francis to get the ball rolling.

"First for 'Love Letter' hour is a letter from A and L asking for advice," Francis takes a quick glance at Gilbert prompting him to raise an eyebrow at the gesture. He keeps his mouth shut knowing he's recording but wants to ask so many questions.

"Dear Afternoon Delight, recently my sister, and best friend, has gotten a ridiculous little crush, and refuses to do anything about it. We're worried she might miss her chance and forever be wondering 'what if'. Do you think there's anything we can do to help? Any advice for her?" Gilbert's eyes slowly widen as Francis reads the letter. Antonio covers his mouth with his hands to block out his giggles to not be heard of the microphone.

"Well," Francis turns in his chair, angling himself to face Gilbert at the same time of talking to the audience listening in.

"First of all, crushes are the beginning to something better, it's wonderful to hear she has one even though it may be ridiculous." Francis goes off, talking about love like he was born to. Gilbert is stuck in his spot.

"As for the 'what if' part-" Here Francis levels him with a serious expression. Gilbert swallows down his anxiety.

"There is nothing worse than wondering. My dears my advice is to go for it. Get her talking. She will be so much happier knowing the outcome of whatever may be than thinking of the possibilities forever and ever." Francis swivels in his chair and Gilbert looks to the ground by his feet. His clenches his hands on his legs and keeps his cool until the switch is flicked signaling he can talk without being heard.

"What the fuck?" He says though not in a mean way. The words all sound muddled in his head. He knows what his friends are trying to do but he doesn't even know where to start. He picks himself up and walks out of the room with his hands in his hair. They call for him but he's walking out of the building quicker now. He sits outside on the curb for a while. The wind whips at his hair, making his nose cold and red.

He rubs at his arms and thinks about her once more. It's a stupid crush. There's no reason for it to go anywhere and yet he's being pushed to pursue it. There's no way for him to do that. As much as he likes attention he could never pull a public stunt to see if he can find her. Even that's a little too dramatic for him. He groans and walks back into the building with his cold hands back in his pockets.

"You okay?" Antonio asks once he's back in the booth. He shrugs in response. Francis sighs.

"We just want you to be happy mon ami, none of this sulking about." Francis says with a little more care than necessary. Gilbert rolls his eyes and a small smirk comes to his face.

"I'm totally fine guys, don't worry about it," He waves off their concern and fake acceptance of his remarks. He goes into the extra office and lays on the floor in there by the corner of the room. Someone has to be jealous of his sleeping anywhere ability. He just has yet to meet them. He manages to get in a quick nap before his own hosting shift starts though it is a restless sleep.

* * *

Madeline sits at one of the two person tables near the counter at Amelia's request to have her there. She doesn't see a reason, but she had nothing better to do once she woke up. With a steaming mug of hot chocolate in her hands she closes her eyes and listens to the radio blaring out love songs overhead. She snaps her eyes open when Lovino slides into the seat across from her.

"You drinking that chocolatey crap?" He smirks at her. She scoffs and takes sip, enjoying her drink despite being judged by her best friend.

"Don't be sad you don't like sweet things," She teases. It's his turn to scoff. Nodding once to his sister as she comes over to bring him his overloaded bitter drink.

"You guys are so cute~" Felicia coos at them. Madeline covers her mouth to keep from laughing to hard and Lovino smacks his head to the table. Amelia starts to laugh from her leaning position on the counter.

"Seriously you guys act like such a couple, just admit you're dating!" She demands in a non-serious manner. Madeline levels a half hearted glare at her while Lovino keeps groaning in annoyance.

"Oh they'd be so cute," Felicia cuddles into Amelia's side, both of them sporting devilish grins. Lovino throws his hands up in the air.

"I'm literally the biggest homosexual. You know this better than anybody," He nearly yells at his sister and she dissolves into giggles. Amelia bangs her head down and her body shakes as she laughs. Madeline simply shakes her head.

"Is this teasing because I told you that blue dress doesn't fit you anymore?" Amelia lifts her head at the question to wink at her sibling.

"You know it sister." Madeline scoffs and drinks more of her hot chocolate before it gets too cold. They stay silent as more customers come in, not wanting to bug their siblings as they actually do work. After the small hustle leaves Amelia takes off her apron and pulls up a chair to the table with a her own cup of flavored coffee in her hands.

"Glad you could come in Maddie," Amelia pats her knee, trying to be less suspicious than Madeline already feels she is. She glances between her sister and best friend.

"What is it?" She deadpans. Amelia shrugs like she has no idea what she's talking about. Lovino instead smirks and points at the speaker overhead, his timing impeccable.

"..letter from A and L asking for advice," Madeline narrows her eyes at them, straining to hear the speaker over the noise of the cafe. She can make out the words though. She stares at them in horror as she processes that they sent in a letter to the very station she's been listening to nonstop for romantic advice on someone that works at the station.

"..will be so much happier knowing the outcome of whatever may come than thinking of the possibilities forever and ever," The last of the advice washes over her and she sits gripping her cup tight. All the words that the host said she's already mulled over before. She wants to find out desperately what could happen and only just has the start to do that.

"I'm going to request a song tonight," She whispers. She peeks up through her bangs at the smiling face of her sister.

"Please Maddie do that, you need to know where this goes." She says and places a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. Lovino nods his head.

" _I_ need to see where this goes it's like a god damn soap opera," He sneers at nothing in particular, getting her to giggle and lighten up the mood. She sighs and then remembers.

"Amelia," She calls to her sister just before she leaves to go get an extra few hours of sleep in before her shifts starts. Amelia tilts her head to show she heard.

"Tomorrow can you come in a half an hour early?" She asks innocently. Amelia smiles wide and agrees without a problem. Madeline doesn't show the relief right away, letting her happiness go once she's sure her sister can't see her. She has a plan. Besides sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Gilbert headbangs recklessly in the booth by himself, pretending to play the guitar with wild arm motions that is actually nothing like playing the guitar. He flops back into his chair before the song ends to make sure his head isn't spinning too badly. He wheels himself over to the microphone just in time.

"Alright night birds, hope you're having a nice night though most of you are probably partying or dead inside," He flicks the button to play the next song and flips his microphone back off. After his nap Ivan stopped by to check up on all of them and talk to Francis in some personal private matter. It's not that he doesn't like the building owner, they just don't get along. It's not the worst thing in the world and they can tolerate each other well enough. It's just easier if they don't interact so they don't end up butting heads.

"Yo Gilly!" Matthias pops his head in the booth after the next song change. Gilbert spins in his chair to face him but lets his chair keep going a few times around for the fun of it.

"Me and Lene gunna step out for a bit think you can cover requests for like an hour?" The tech nerd smiles sheepishly to him and Gilbert laughs. He waves off the question with a jerk of his head to the phone beside him.

"No problem, you two crazy kids have fun~" He teases and Matthias is running away to go sweep his girlfriend off her feet. Though Gilbert isn't too sure they are dating, or just friends, or somewhere in between. Who knows, Matthias probably doesn't even know.

He taps a few buttons on the phone to get the system set up to send the calls his way so he can manage them. Not even having time to worry if he did it right the phone rings. He picks it up and says the lines he's practiced in his head long before Matthias came to help them out.

"Thanks for calling BTT Radio, what do you want?" He asks not unkindly. So maybe his way of answering the phone has become more callous after being able to say whatever the hell he wants over the station. Though the first time he said the F-bomb they almost got cancelled before getting supreme permission.

The person on the other end tells him their request for a song. He finds it in the database and hangs up, adding the song to the setlist for the night to make sure the person can hear it within the hour. The calls don't happen often seeing they are just a small kind of station but they are frequent enough to give him something else to do besides sit around and wait for song to end.

Sometimes he misses the calls because he's rocking out too hard, but he figures one or two couldn't be too bad to miss. He feels a little guilty thinking that, taking a seat once more and waiting for the phone to ring again. He keeps a tally of if it's a boy or girl calling in because he can.

After a while he starts answering the phone in weirder ways, saying odd names trying to see how many conspiracies going about what his real name is going about the internet. At one point he calls himself Mr Sexy and that the caller reached his pizzeria. The pizza part is the only lie in his opinion. It made it lots better when the caller actually responded with a pizza order.

He rolls a hand over his shoulder from sitting for so long, standing to do some mild stretches while he has the time. He's on the ground when the phone rings, making him scramble to his knees to answer it, almost falling face first into his desk in the process.

"BTT Radio at your service but not the dirty kind, what can I do for you?" He answers, hooking the phone between his ear and shoulder, placing his hands on the computer to look up the song the person is most likely requesting. There's a gentle giggle on the other end and his heart leaps into his chest at the sound. It's way too familiar for his liking.

"Uhm, hi, I was just, wondering if I could, request a song?" They ask and he narrows his eyes, trying to remember exactly where he remembers that voice.

"Yeah totally, what you thinking?" He tries to sound collected as his mind races. The girl on the other end makes a 'hmm' noise.

"Would you be able to play 'Run' by The Maine? Please?" Gilbert freezes in his typing of the title. He knows that song, has spent the past 2 months memorizing the lyrics and thinking of the girl who told him it's one of her favorites.

"Uhm, hello?" The person on the other end says and he shakes his head, dropping the phone in the process. He curses kind of loudly and picks the phone back up.

"Yeah totally sorry I was writing it down I, yeah no I can, yeah do that for, yeah," He fumbles out a comprehensible sentence with his mind completely buzzing. It's too coincidental. Can it really be her? She giggles at his attempt of wording properly and he smiles to himself over the sound.

"Thank you," She says softly. There's no way it can't be her and nothing will convince him otherwise.

"Of course yeah, bye I mean, wait no, yes, thank you for calling ahh," He grits his teeth at the level of smoothness that is exiting his speaking hole.

"Bye," She says with a squeak. Gilbert doesn't hang up right away, wondering if she'll say more but then the phone clicks off and he can breathe again. He flops to the floor, playing the next song immediately without a comment. It had to be her. There's a ridiculous smile on his face. She called him. She listens to him. She-

Gilbert jumps to his feet and dances around the sound booth crazily with a stupid cackle come from him. He's absolutely giddy with happiness at the information he gained from just that one call. Negative thoughts come soon after, wondering if it's just this one time she's been listening or if it's been a constant or she just likes the music he plays but he doesn't care. He's too happy to have heard her voice again.

He finds the song easily enough and adds it to the playlist, putting it as high up on the order as he can. His heart is still pounding from the idea of her listening to him blabber over the radio. Has she picked up on his random subtle hints he's thinking of her? Does she think of him too? He can only hope.

* * *

Madeline waves bye to the customers exiting the café later in the night. She collects their used cups from the table and brings them to the back to fill the last few spaces in the dishwasher. She walks back to the front to find herself alone. With a deep breath, she stalls. Wiping down all the tables and chairs twice and the counter a few hundred times. Cleans out the coffee machine twice and counts all the cups to see if they need anymore until she decides she can't find anything else to distract her.

She holds the phone in her hand staring down at her fingers over the keypad, ready to dial the number she's heard multiple times over the speaker. She glances up to it now, hearing the host make another snide comment and playing a new song.

She knows what song she wants to request. If he remembers her at all and the songs she likes, which she thinks he does, he'll get it's her calling almost instantly. Or at least she hopes that's how it'll work. If not then she'll know her feelings are for naught and to get over them. Though she's not so sure how easy that'll be. With a sigh she dials the number in a rapid sequence to not lose her courage right away. Of course when she can hear the ring her heart pounds in nerves.

"BTT Radio at your service but not the dirty kind, what can I do for you?" She swallows down any fear at hearing him on the other end. This is happening and she needs to not hang up in a panic this time. His words make sense and she giggles softly. Oh she hopes he recognizes her.

"Uhm, hi, I was just, wondering if I could, request a song?" She shakes her head in annoyance to her own tripping of words. It's quiet for a second longer than necessary and she almost does hang up.

"Yeah totally, what you thinking?" He asks with a slight hitch to his voice and she breathes out a slow puff of air. This is the moment of truth.

"Would you be able to play 'Run' by The Maine? Please?" She bites her lip after the sentence leaves her mouth. She knows for a fact she told him she likes this song a lot. He's played other of her favorites before so there's a good chance he knows this one too. It's silent on the other end. She starts to worry.

"Uhm, hello?" She asks cautiously and then there's a loud clatter. She blinks down at the phone, hearing some semblance to swears through the receiver.

"Yeah totally sorry I was writing it down I, yeah no I can, yeah do that for, yeah," He meshes together a sentence, probably trying to sound put together and not like he just dropped the phone. She giggles gently and a smile crosses her face.

"Thank you," She says softly. There's no way he doesn't know it's her. He has to.

"Of course yeah, bye I mean, wait no, yes, thank you for calling ahh," He sounds positively nervous and her heart lurches at the idea he's thinking of her in the same way she has.

"Bye," She manages to squeak out. She waits for the phone to go dead but when it doesn't the silence gets to her and she hangs up quickly. She places the phone on the counter and drops to her knees, covering her face with her hands and squealing to herself. He has to know it's her, and by the sound of it he remembers who she is on top of it all. He could recognize her voice and her favorite songs. He has to.

She stands and can't stop the utterly happy smile on her face. Not only did she have the courage to actually call and speak actually words to him again, but he knew her. She takes a deep breath and faceplants to the counter, completely and utterly nerve shot. She makes herself a cup of hot chocolate just to calm down. The next few customers that come in are nearly weirded out by the happiness she is emitting. It gets worse when she hears her song on the radio.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asks with a skeptical smile on her face when she walks in half an hour earlier than she normally does. Madeline shrugs and dissolves into a soft laughter instead of answering. She can't really finds words to describe how happy she is at just accomplishing the small amount she did. Amelia raises an eyebrow to her then eyes the phone on the counter. Her eyes go wide and Madeline nods knowing her sister will understand. Amelia squeals and twirls her in a circle.

"You did it! Hell yes you did it!" She cheers. Madeline nuzzles her in excitement. Once she's back on her feet she catches a glance at the time. She makes up some excuse to be near the tables just in time for Ivan to enter the café like he usually does before Amelia arrives. He pauses in the doorway with a panicked look on his face. He glances between the two of them and Maddie nods her head in an encouraging way.

"Come on big guy I'll take your order, I don't bite," Amelia giggles and Ivan tentatively goes closer. She watches in amusement as Ivan fumbles over himself talking to her sister, only to have Amelia be able to get his words out easily and help him pick up the change he spills on the floor on accident. Ivan covers his face with his hands in embarrassment.

"All wrong," He mutters. Madeline inhales sharply thinking she pushed him too far when Amelia shakes her head, placing a gentle hand on him to get his attention.

"No this is the right amount, see?" She holds out the change in her hand for Ivan to see. He peeks through his fingers to see her bright smile and takes the coins quietly. He sits in his normal seat, playing with his scarf while Amelia makes his typical order. Madeline winks at her sister when she catches her attention. Amelia just shakes her head with a smug smile on her face at having finally been able to talk to the guy she's been eyeing since she first saw him in the café.


	8. Chapter 8

Lovino doesn't like taking the bus. As a matter of fact, he doesn't really like anything. The whole world is just out to annoy him some days, and today is just one of those days. First he had one of the hardest math tests he's ever had in his whole fucking life, scraping by the skin of his teeth thanks to Amelia tutoring him last minute like some sort of guardian angel of numbers. Felicia had a panic attack at work and he had to go and be there for moral support so that took out his siesta time, though if he's being honest he didn't mind going to help her as it's what big brothers do.

Now the bus he's supposed to take back home about an hour and a half away is late, and to make the day even more horrible it's starting to rain and he has most of his school work with him. It's going to get soaking wet and his computer might get ruined. He groans and smacks his hand to his face.

Taking the bus out to the old folks home hadn't been too bad. No one sat by him or talked to him so that gave him a moments peace to build up the tolerance to deal with his grandfather. The man isn't awful. No he's very accepting and open to what he and Felicia and their little brother wish to do with their lives even for an older generation kind of person. He tries to visit at least once a week per parental request.

No, what sets Lovino on edge is the blatant flirting his grandfather does with all the nurses, male and female, that work at the old folks home. He doesn't know how to get it through his grandfather's thick head that the nurses aren't flirting back with him when they're being nice. They're trying to get him to shut up and eat his god damn jello to put him to sleep because he's being annoying as all fuck.

If anything Lovino is grateful the nurses don't just kick out the old man to the curb. He doesn't know how to deal with the man for more than an hour at most. Felicia wouldn't be able to handle it for sure either and who knows where his parents have settled down for now. No it's best he's at the home. If only he didn't live so fucking far away. Though if he lived closer, Lovino might have to spend more time with him.

Lovino glares up at the sky as the clouds roll in more, raining harder. He shudders against the cold and tries to hide more so under his jacket hood. It does very little to keep him dry and his shoes are going to soaked to the soles. Fuck.

"F-fuck," He mumbles. His teeth chatter slightly. He hates the cold. It's so.. Cold. His entire body just tenses up. All he wants now is a warm cup of coffee from Maddie's work. That woman can make the meanest espresso he's ever had and he's damn near craving it now. He glances at his phone clock, wondering if she'll be working by the time he gets back.

For a moment he debates calling for a cab to see if that'll be faster. He just doesn't want to be standing in the rain much longer. As if to answer his thoughts the rain stops hitting his head. He turns his head up sharply to a man beside him, sharing his umbrella with a wide smile on his face. Who the fuck.

"What?" Is all he manages to say. He's too confused to say much else. The man smiles even wider and Lovino isn't even sure how. The stranger's face might break if he smiles more from strain, or from Lovino punching it off him just to stop being annoyed by the possibility of it.

"You were getting wet," They say by way of explanation. Lovino is left dumbstruck staring at them like they've grown a second head. He takes a small step away from them, not stepping out entirely from under the umbrella though, hell no would he do that.

"Who are you?" He spits out. The man actually laughs at his angry tone.

"My name's Antonio. Are you waiting for the bus?" He asks brightly with a tilt of his head. Lovino's jaw actually drops.

"What the fuck." He hisses mostly to himself. Who ever this guy is they have no right to be so damn cheerful in such conditions.

"Are you cold? I have a blanket in my car you can have." He offers despite the clear disturbed look Lovino is sporting. He opens and closes his mouth a few times trying to find out just what to say to this guy. He doesn't look like one of those creeps he's heard about, but that doesn't really mean much. No this man has skin the color of mocha and a simply trusting air about him.

"What the fuck." Lovino says again and the man laughs once more sounding like it's bright spring and not the beginning of a damn downpour.

"This may sound bad but I have a car just over there," The man gestures in the distance and Lovino follows his hand to the possible vehicles in question. "If you need a ride somewhere I can give you one?" The suggestion sounds way too tempting for Lovino to actually be comfortable with. He holds his hands up and backs out from under the umbrella to properly convey his discomfort.

"Whoa hold the fuck up. What?" This person, Antonio, has at least the gall to look sheepish by his actions. It doesn't stop him from holding his umbrella farther out to cover Lovino still while he gets wet in the process.

"I'm sorry I just- You looked really cold." For the first time Antonio's smile slips a little nearly making Lovino feel guilty. He pushes the umbrella back towards the holder and steps back so they both aren't getting wet.

"Offering someone a ride home when you've just fucking met them is creepy as shit though," He mumbles. Antonio laughs at the small acceptance of his help.

"Maybe but I believe in doing good brings good, so I thought I'd offer," He smiles brightly at Lovino. With a drawn out groan Lovino rolls his eyes.

"What's your name?" Antonio asks suddenly. He huffs.

"Lovino," Is his curt answer. Antonio takes it like a first prize medal.

"It's nice to meet you, and that blanket is still open if you want it." He laughs again and Lovino suppresses his next urge to groan. He really shouldn't be mean to someone trying to help make his day less miserable but who the fuck just does that? It's off putting really. So he waits under the umbrella of some stranger for the bus. After a minute or two the whole situation comes crashing down on him.

"Why are you waiting when you have a car?" He barks out harshly at his sudden realization. Antonio blinks wide and innocently at him then smiles sheepishly.

"I want to make sure you get on okay," He says with a shrug of his shoulders. Lovino reels back a little in shock, not knowing how to process such an overwhelming sense of selflessness. Sure he's used to kindness from Madeline, but that took a few months to get to that kind of friendship with extreme perseverance on her side. He scuffs his soaking shoes against the concrete awkwardly.

"I live far away," He finds himself saying. He peeks at Antonio quickly, catching sight of the starry eyed look on his face.

"How far?" Lovino shrugs to the question.

"Hour and a half-ish." He expects at this point for Antonio to drop his offer like a hot potato because driving some random person home who had been outright rude to him when they live out of the way has to be one of the most unpleasant experiences anyone has-

"That's no problem! Honestly!" Antonio leans into his a space just enough for Lovino to lean back. Again his jaw drops at the kind offer. Yes he's really thinking about taking it. It's better than the bus and standing in the rain to wait for it. He grits his teeth and glares at the ground.

"Get me out of this fucking weather." He says and Antonio nods his head, moving to guide Lovino just down the street and around one corner to a small car. Lovino slides in when the door is opened for him and debates the pros and cons of being in a small confined space with a stranger.

* * *

Maybe approaching the cute boy on the street hadn't been his best idea but he really did want to help. They looked so cold and unhappy in the rain getting utterly soaked. He couldn't just let his heartstrings pull at him like that. Even if they didn't let him drive him home he would have given them his umbrella at least. He glances at them. Lovino if he remembers correctly, is staring out the window and wrapped in that blanket he offered. There's still a small hint of a scowl on his face.

Helping people has always been one of his favorite things to do. It's part of the reason he agreed to work at the radio station with Gilbert and Francis. To be able to reach those who are at their worst part of their day with sweet songs, to maybe make their mornings just a little easier, sounds like the best kind of wake up call. Now though he really just wants to help Lovino get home.

"You feeling better?" He asks, messing with the air conditioning to make sure it's warm enough. Lovino grunts in response and Antonio catches sight of him nodding his head.

"Good," That alone puts a smile on his face. He doesn't mind driving all the way to get Lovino home. It has to be faster than taking the bus, and more comfortable. He hopes. Lovino reaches out a hand to turn up the volume slightly on the radio, Gilbert's voice just coming over the sound system. Lovino snorts and leans back in his seat with a smirk on his face. Antonio glances between Lovino and the road, wondering what just he's thinking.

"Why are you helping me?" Guess he doesn't have to wonder long. He shrugs with a smile still on his face.

"It's just what feel right." He answers. Lovino scoffs at his response. Antonio twists up his nose in thinking. Then he gets a brilliant idea.

"So my name is Antonio, I'm an Aquarius-"

"What are you-" Lovino interrupts him but doesn't get to finish his own sentence as Antonio keeps going.

"I tend to wake up super early for no reason, my favorite kind of music is actually super heavy metal," He prattles on. Lovino sputters again for him to stop, even sitting up to stare at him like he's crazy.

"I really like turtles though bulls are my favorite, so is the color red, my parents are from Spain-"

"What the actual fuck is-" Antonio can't stop the smile on his face at getting Lovino's attention. He flashes the smile to his passenger and keeps going.

"I speak fluent Spanish, my favorite season is spring, and I like my coffee super strong and bitter and hot." He finishes his speech and keeps his eyes straight ahead to not see the disturbed look he's going to guess is on Lovino's face. When he doesn't say anything for a long time, Antonio takes a chance to glance at him.

"I figured introducing myself makes us less strangers and this less creepy?" He says without much confidence from the look he guessed staring right back at him. His smile falls just a hint, thinking that maybe spilling out himself to his passenger hadn't been the best idea.

He's pleasantly surprised when Lovino actually sputters up into a laugh. Not a big one like he hears from Gilbert or the ones he lets out himself, but that small soft entertained kind of laugh he might hear from Francis. A genuine sort of thing that makes him feel proud all over. He shifts in his seat to get a little more comfortable in the less tense atmosphere of his car.

"You fucking dork," Lovino snorts. Antonio can feel himself puff up at the light hearted insult, knowing somehow that Lovino doesn't mean to be rude. He's surprised again when Lovino opens up to him, sitting up straighter and actively participating in conversation though with small answers and no big spiel.

"Psychology? Isn't that really difficult? Can you tell me what disorder I have?" Antonio bounces in his seat at getting to know his passenger. Lovino is in his last year of college, nearly done and ready to move on with his life.

"Yeah you have 'can't shut the fuck up' syndrome, don't worry it's very common," Lovino sneers at him but not in a mean way so Antonio laughs. For just one second he catches a glimpse of a smile on Lovino's face and his heart pounds hard at the sight.

"I'm not into that stuff, mostly work with language ticks and how people respond to different heard stimuli," He shrugs his shoulders and points to a nearby street to direct Antonio down that way. They must be getting close. He finds himself a little sad at the revelation, actually having fun talking to Lovino more than he thought.

"Hey actually drop me off over there," He points to an empty spot in front of a small lit up business. Antonio pulls over and watches with the smallest of sad expressions as Lovino wiggles out of the blanket. He opens the door and Antonio makes his move. He grabs Lovino's sleeve quickly to get his attention.

"Would I be able to talk to you more? I know this is so weird but you're really cute and I just, well I want to see you again," He says easily. He prepares himself to be cursed out but Lovino's face turns bright red. It's one of the prettiest sights Antonio has ever seen. Lovino shuffles his stuff and rips out a piece of paper, his face is still blushing madly. He crumples the paper and throws it, hitting Antonio in the face and slamming the door shut.

Antonio watches him walk away hastily inside the building. Lovino drops to a table inside and a girl with blonde hair laughs at him. He smiles to himself and flattens out the paper, feeling positively on top of the world at seeing the numbers written on it. He's practically singing on his drive back home. His head filled with thoughts with someone who just two hours ago had been a complete stranger.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so patient with me while life does loop-de-loops


	9. Chapter 9

Gilbert feels on top of the world. Nothing can bring him down. Except for his chair rolling out from underneath him and sending him flailing to the ground. He lets out a low groan when he catches his breath, staying on the ground just to make sure he has himself all put together before actually moving. He wiggles lazily with the chair wobbling with him. His cleaning supplies are scattered across the floor.

He woke up way too early for his liking and decided to put the daylight to good use. With only one rubber glove he set to destroying all the germs in the office. Matthias put up a small fight when Gilbert kicked him out of his office to get rid of all the energy drink cans and pop-tart cases. That space needed the most cleaning and Gilbert would be damned if he didn't get his neat freak hands on it. Luckily Lene helped convince Matthias to take a shower.

He organized all the music catalogs and even updated some of the systems available to them. Then he moved his way to the sound booth not being used by Francis. He got lost in a little daydream about the other night when the memory came back to him. It had to be her that called him. No one else he knows sounds like that. It spurred a whole bunch of new hopeful feelings, ones that distract him when he leans too far in his chair to reach a dirty spot on the desk.

Even on the ground staring at the ceiling he has a smile on his face. His stupid crush is going to ruin him, but he really likes her. If only he could talk to her more, maybe learn her name. There has to be some way to get in contact with her. He has to let her know he's been thinking about her.

"What are you doing?" Gilbert angles his head back the best he can to smirk at Francis in the doorway looking at him like a scolding mother. He manages to flip to his stomach and out of the chair's grasps on his legs.

"Cleaning a little," He snickers when Francis rolls his eyes.

"You've been in a frightfully good mood lately," His partner says and Gilbert just smiles. He can't find the words to describe how it happened and how it felt to hear her voice again.

"I just got a good request yesterday," He says. Francis scoffs disbelieving and heads back to his own booth to make his transition statement between songs. Gilbert pulls himself to his feet to makes faces through the window.

"A good request huh? From who?" Francis spares him a glance when Gilbert shuts the door behind him, joining Francis in the sound booth. He sighs a little dramatically, that stupid grin still present on his face. He catches sight of Francis looking at him with both his eyebrows raised in questioning.

"Just my little birdie is all," He says with a smirk and Francis covers his mouth his with his hands.

"Shut up!" He exclaims. Gilbert shrugs and laughs loudly when Francis wraps him in a hug.

"Oh this is so exciting! Nous devons célébrer!" In his joy Francis slips into his mother tongue further making Gilbert laugh. He pries himself out of his friend's hands and goes back to the other booth to tidy up the last of the available dirt to him. For the next few hours at the station he makes fun of Francis for reading very sappy love letters from anonymous people to their secret lovers over the radio and makes a complete nuisance of himself dancing in the sound booth by himself to get some of his blissful energy out.

When it comes time for his turn to take over, he's practically out of his seat and walking around the sound booth with the microphone in his hand. He's positively giddy at the idea that she's listening to him make a fool of himself and he's going to be the best damn fool she's ever heard. He can feel his show being a little more exciting as the night progresses, more party like though it's not yet the weekend.

"Alright guys stick around cause another hour of 'Why the fuck are you still up?' is right around the metaphorical corner," He flicks his mic and plays the next song, shaking out his hands to get out his jitters. He's been try harding, bluntly and openly. He only hopes that it's not super noticeable that he's trying to outwardly impress someone he doesn't even know is listening. That's not the point though.

"Alright night birds welcome back, and we got our first caller on the way to figure out why the fuck they are still up," He places a hand to his headphone, listening to Matthias press the right buttons to connect the call.

"Hey you're on live with BTT Radio, why the fuck are you still up?" He says into the mic. The person on the other end muses for a moment about actually being on the show before going into detail about the awful date night she had. Gilbert laughs at the story, giving a small bit of advice on how next time she should just scream and run instead of sitting through the awkwardness. He says goodbye to them and awaits his next caller to come through.

"Hey you're on with BTT Radio live, why the fuck are you awake?" He kicks his feet up on the desk and rocks back and forth. There's a small noise on the other end, probably nerves from being actually put through. He taps his pen to his leg and waits.

"Um, because I fucking want to be," Gilbert sputters and falls backwards for the second time that day. He lands hard but continues to laugh through it because hearing such a thing come from her is one of the best things he's ever experienced.

"Well you don't need a better reason than that now do ya?" His goofy smile is back full force and he can hear her laughing along with someone else cheering in the background.

"Come on tell us what you're doing up so late?" He prods just a little. Maybe for audience sake, but he knows it's cause he's curious. He wants to know. He wants to know everything about her.

"It's a late night shift at work is all," She says and his heart pounds. Does she listen to him at work? What a better way to make she doesn't actually get work done.

"Have to listen to something to make the time go by," She laughs lightly and his entire world gets brighter. He places a hand to his face to try and stop the splitting grin on it but he can't. It takes him a few moments to find logical words to say.

"No better nonsense than this!" He cheers to himself, picking himself up off the floor for the second time that day. He clears his throat awkwardly when there's a too long of a silence.

"Well thanks for calling in and sharing," He says a little softly compared to how he's been the rest of the night, trying to sound as genuine as he can.

"Thanks for keeping me entertained," She says back and once more his heart pounds. He has no control over the phone call changing over as that is Matthias's doing. He leans back when he hears the beeps signaling a new caller coming in. He shakes his head to get back into the upbeat mood he had before, answering his caller with a new kind of gusto.

* * *

Madeline waves bye to a customer as they exit with a loud 'thanks' for serving them. She hums to herself and starts to wipe down tables and collect dishes when Ivan walks in at a different time of day than he usually does. She waves to him and he waves back, approaching the counter with the same amount of shyness as before with Amelia working the register. Thankfully their interaction is much more peaceful than the first time. Ivan is able to fully function and get his words out to order a coffee without too much of a stutter and Amelia doesn't say anything that might make him drop his change again.

Ivan takes his normal spot in the corner and Madeline heads back to the counter to wash the dishes. Over the machine working she can barely hear the radio going off about love letters and she knows exactly which segment is on. With a smile on her face she saddles up next to Amelia leaning on the counter and nearly drooling over Ivan.

"Seriously?" She asks with a small smile. Amelia catches her look and scoffs, elbowing her playfully nowhere near as hard as she could.

"This is from Tall to Small," Madeline raises an eyebrow to the introduction of the love letter being read over the air. She glances at her sister with a bored look on her face and then over to Ivan who has tensed completely. She makes the connection just as the host keeps reading. It's the sappiest love letter she's ever heard. She loses count of all the pet names used during the lengthy description of the girl in question's smile. The letter goes on for another full minute until the sign off.

"Wow," Amelia muses once the letter is over with. Madeline glances at her nervously, wondering exactly what her reaction is going to be to such a letter being written to her. She can see Ivan taking his own nervous looks over as well.

"Whoever that was for is sure freaking lucky," Amelia makes an impressed face and goes to the back room to get a new rag while Madeline watches her walk away with a dumbfounded expression. She places her fingertips to her temple and tries to for sure comprehend what just happened. Her sister did not make the connection. For someone who is so smart, she's really stupid.

Madeline sighs and cast a look over at Ivan who looks absolutely crestfallen at his attempt to woo Amelia without having to actually talk to her. She meanders over to him and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. He sighs and shakes his head.

"I tried," He says sadly. She nods her head in understanding. It must have taken courage to write such a thing and even more so to ask it to be read out loud for thousands of people to hear.

"Try again. It takes a while to get things through her head," She reassures as gently as she can without outright saying Amelia is the most oblivious person she's ever met and they've known each other since the beginning. She goes back to the counter with a deep sigh. Ivan leaves about an hour later and Lovino comes barreling in not too long after that.

Madeline smiles at him as he goes off about his next exam and how horrid it's going to be. Amelia tells him to wait and she'll help him when her shift for sure ends. He hadn't had time to really study. Just a few days ago Lovino got stuck out of town and apparently, a really attractive stranger drove him home. Of course he gave out his number and since Lovino is clearly a bundle of joy to have around, the stranger called him up to have a date soon enough. It went well by Lovino's terms, his red face telling it went very well indeed.

Her favorite host comes on the air and she smiles despite herself. She waves off her sister's cooing and gets the phone ready. She's not going to hang up this time if she gets on. Amelia and Lovino begin to study with her interjecting snide comments like the true best friend she is. Lovino eventually gets really fed up with the numbers and Madeline throws a rag at him. He takes it in his hands and wipes down the table near him to get out his anger and frustrations with menial task work. It helps him focus just a little more after he's calmed down enough.

"Alright guys stick around cause another hour of 'Why the fuck are still up?' is right around the metaphorical corner." She smiles up at the speaker, catching the smug looks from Amelia and Lovino. She scoffs and goes to the back to get her favorite mug for hot chocolate to give her something to do while she waits.

"Good luck," Lovino teases her and heads out the door. Amelia laughs at the huff Madeline lets out. The segment starts and she grips the phone tight. She taps in the right buttons and waits. She gets the busy signal first. She sighs and sends a shrug Amelia's way. Her sister waves her on again and sits with rapt attention waiting for Madeline to call once more. She plucks up her courage and does just that. Her mind going blank when a voice tells her to wait and she'll be on live in a few moments. Oh no what does she say?

"Hey you're on with BTT Radio live, why the fuck are you awake?" His voice washes through her mind and she inhales sharply, making a small whine at not remembering how to words. She catches sight of Amelia making wild hand gestures. She's not sure what her sister is trying to tell her but new words come to her before she can think about them.

"Um, because I fucking want to be," She covers her mouth quickly. There's aloud crash from over the speaker and she can hear him laughing over the receiver as well, loud and clear and full of joy. She sends a horrified look Amelia's way. Her sister is not helping by looking far too excited.

"Well you don't need a better reason than that now do ya?" He says to her, making it sound weird with the double echo from the speaker. Amelia laughs loudly.

"You just said fuck over live radio!" She cheers and walks away to not interrupt the conversation farther. Madeline remembers to breathe when he talks again.

"Come on tell us what you're doing up so late?" She takes a deep breath, trying to think of something better to say this time to not be so embarrassed.

"It's a late night shift at work is all," Her heart pounds, wondering if she said too much. He might suspect her listening to his show every night, and while true, is a little embarrassing. The silence stretches on a little and she fumbles for new words. She's already in this deep.

"Have to listen to something to make the time go by," She lets out a soft awkward laugh and Amelia comes back, giving her a thumbs up and a wide grin. Madeline rolls her eyes and she can hear him laugh lightly.

"No better nonsense than this!" There's a dumb smile on her face and she can feel it. He clears his throat to continue talking.

"Well thanks for calling in and sharing," The amount of energy he has had the whole night is toned down. She swallows thickly, wondering if he's being serious that he's really thankful it's her calling. She shakes her head at the idea. He's probably very thankful for all his callers. But there's a sweetness in his voice that makes her wonder.

"Thanks for keeping me entertained," She tells him gently. It's a bit weird to hear her own voice over the speaker. She thinks if she has to say anything more, or if she wants to, when a click sounds out and the he's talking to someone new on air. She puts the phone down with a deep breath and giggles to herself. She did it. She had a full conversation with him.

"Look at you love bug~" Her sister coos at her and Madeline rolls her eyes. They share a huge hug and then Amelia is gone to go home and go to sleep. Madeline fiddles with her now empty mug, wondering if there's a limit to much happiness she can feel.


	10. Chapter 10

The word of Gilbert's little crush getting in contact with him spreads quickly throughout all 6 of the people who work at the station. Francis and Antonio are more than pleased with the new developments, having not seen Gilbert so romantically happy in a while. He's feeling better too. She's called the station a few more times since he's asked why she's up. He knows because Matthias checked the call list to match numbers and now knowing it's his crush calling, he tells Gilbert when it's her request.

Gilbert is looking over his playlist for the night in the excess office, thinking of any snappy lines he can say between songs when Ivan comes barging in like he owns the place. Technically he does but he doesn't need to march around like it. Ivan pauses at the end of the hallway, turns around and almost walks out before turning back around to keeping going on his original path. Gilbert rolls to the ground to watch from the doorway as his so called boss nervously talks to Francis about something.

He died laughing when he found out Ivan had given a love letter to Francis to read for some girl he had feelings for. It's a good thing he didn't find out sooner because he would have laughed harder and quite possibly ruined the whole event. He raises an eyebrow as Ivan hands a new paper to Francis and leaves the sound booth, twiddling his fingers together in a fit of anxiety.

"Yo big man," He calls from the floor. Ivan jerks and freezes. He stares down at Gilbert like he's growing out of the carpet.

"Yes?" He manages to say back. Gilbert snorts at the response.

"Why don't you just hand your love letters to your girlie?" He props up an elbow to lean his head against it and Ivan begins to fidget more.

"She is- I- Don't- She wouldn't- Can't-" Ivan's words jump all over the place and he hides his face with his scarf. Gilbert lets out a low whistle.

"Hey dude didn't mean to make you freak I was just curious," He says easily. He doesn't want to be responsible for panic attack Ivan. They tend to get on each other's nerves and he'd rather not aggravate their strained relationship even more.

"Why don't you talk to your romantic interest?" Ivan suddenly asks him having calmed down. Gilbert sighs and flops over onto his back. He knows Ivan doesn't mean his words to sound harsh or mean. They are both fairly in the same situation.

"Don't know her name," He shrugs as best he can. Ivan makes a low 'hum' noise and walks away from him, pausing just before exiting the building to look back at him.

"At least you know she somewhat feels the same," His tone is bitter as he sweeps out of the building and back outside into the wild winds. Gilbert glares at the door, wiggling to rest on his side and keep looking over song titles. It's not quite true he knows how she feels. It'd be nice, but it's still up in the air. He sighs and puts his papers over his face. Ivan's words are stuck in his head taking him from concentration.

He has no idea if she feels the same as he does, wondering constantly if their conversation could have been a lead up to more if either of them had been smart enough to exchange numbers, or names. He just wants to talk to her one more time, figure out what song has became her favorite of the week. It's a good thing he's not in charge of the main order of the songs because he knows for a fact he would only play songs she likes and ones that remind him of her.

With a dramatic groan he wiggles across the floor, happy that he vacuumed it just a few days ago. He wants to know more about her but he can't do that very well in their current circumstances. The only thing he can hope for is her song requests in the late hours of the night.

He takes over hosting with a bit of a melancholy mood compared to his last few shows. Maybe the audience can tell with the set list since he moved it around just a little bit based of what he would kind of like to hear in what order. Matthias will hopefully not mind too much. They tag team taking song requests, giving Gilbert just another edge to try and talk to her though it might not work.

"Thanks for calling BTT Radio, what song you wanna listen to?" He prattles on to the new caller while a song plays overheard. He narrows his eyes at nothing in particular when they don't say anything right away. There's a soft sniffle and his heart snaps.

"Hi," The broken voice says and he releases a huff of air. It's her he can tell, but it's not happy or giggly.

"Hey," He says back, not knowing what else there is to say. There's a few more sniffles before she talks again.

"Can you play a song for me?" She asks with a crack in her words. He nods his head, then shakes it to remind himself she can't see him.

"Yeah I can, yeah just.. Hold on a moment," He says and changes the mic so he can talk over the broadcast. He says his song transition, then flips the line back over to where she is. Maybe he's not supposed to do this, but she doesn't sound okay, and he'll be damned if he can't at least talk to her about it.

* * *

Madeline blinks down at the flyer Amelia slaps in front of her. Her sister looks entirely too proud of herself for creating such a thing. She grimaces and picks it up to scrutinize farther, her expression turning more sour the more she reads.

"Do we really have to host a party?" She tries to make it sound like she's not whining but it doesn't work too well. Amelia laughs loudly from beside her and takes out a small stack of the party flyers. Madeline can't stop the sigh that comes out of her. Of course she's happy the café has reached four years of successful business, but the idea of holding a party for such an occasion makes her stomach churn just enough for her to not want to host one.

"Come on! Wouldn't it be cool to hold a get together party for all our loyal customers?" Amelia nearly gets away with her subtle motion but Madeline catches her glancing over to where Ivan is reading a book with a cup of coffee in front of him. The glare is hard to keep off her face.

"None of us are going to want to do actual work on a celebratory day," She counters, handing the flyer back to her sister with a huff. Amelia blinks down at it dumbfounded then turns a skeptical look up at her.

"It'll hardly be like working." She snatches the flyer still leveling Madeline with a questioning stare.

"Yes it will. Someone is going to have to make drinks and food. There will be so many people knowing it's a 'party'," Madleine makes air quotations with the word party. Someone will have to be working, and even if they shorten the menu for the day there will definitely be more people they can handle and on a day like that, most employees would rather be relaxing over dealing with others. Amelia scoffs.

"We can totally handle that! What's your problem?" She asks a little louder than she means to. They both freeze quickly and walk to the small back room to continue their bickering without the possible audience.

"My problem-" Madeline hisses, "Is that you didn't think to ask me about this first. We don't have the means to host a party." She goes on gesturing about her to the limited space they barely have for the sparse food they do serve. Amelia is now glaring back at her.

"We can make it happen though and you don't want to!" Her voice goes higher and Madeline raises her eyebrows at her sister for yelling.

"There's no reason for us to make a special thing, if anything we should be closed to give us all a break!" She raises a hand to pull at her hair softly, a subtle reminder to make sure she doesn't lose all control. She doesn't believe they should be closed the whole day, but maybe have shorter hours to give everyone a moment's peace. She's angry though and words are just coming out.

"There's every reason to make a special thing! What's more special that a fun party for customers!" Amelia crosses her arms indignantly. Madeline twists her face up in annoyance.

"You just want a party so you can talk to Ivan because you're too chicken to do otherwise!" She inhales sharply as the words leave her mouth. Amelia's jaw drops and her glare grows sharper and her eyes go cold.

"I haven't spent months pining over him and refusing to call him to talk to him over the radio."

"Like you're any better, pinning at him from the counter when he writes you such sappy letters you don't even notice." Amelia's eyes go wide. Madeline doesn't feel as bad as she should. Amelia had to find out sooner or later those words over the radio are for her. She puffs up and Amelia practically growls in anger.

"At least I know his name!" Amelia shouts at her. Madeline flinches at the sound. She hates yelling and sudden loud noises in general, but hearing it from her sister directly at her is so much worse. Especially over that situation. She holds her arms to her as Amelia silent and seething collects her stuff an hour before her shift actually ends to stomp out the door and go home.

Once she knows Amelia has left the building she lets a few tears slip out. She hates fighting and she hates the situation she's in. She doesn't know what to do. She takes a seat on the random chair they have in the back and curls up on herself. She wishes she knew his name. She wishes Amelia had talked to her about the party idea before going to print out a stack of flyers with no one else's opinion. She wishes she had stayed calm enough to not snap at her sister.

She takes a shaky breath and wipes at her eyes, hearing new customers come in for a late night fix of caffeine. She smiles as best she can and takes their orders with smile that is more forced than she would like. She nearly hopes Lovino will come in with a scowl to rant about his day to give her a distraction but the empty café leaves her nothing to do but think.

It's not that she wouldn't mind hosting a party, but the idea of working during a celebration sounds not fun. It would only be a party to those who come in for the deals they might have, but her and the other workers would be swamped. If they all worked it would be easier, but that would be cruel to make them work long busy shifts. If they could host a party between the staff and maybe few guest it would be a private endeavor and more relaxing. She runs a hand through her hair and clunks her head to the counter.

"What if people don't panic at the disco? What if they rage at the disco instead?" She tilts her head up to the speaker. A new song comes over head and she makes another rash decision of the day. She dials the radio number and hopes that it's him that picks up. She wants a comforting voice right now.

"Thanks for calling BTT Radio, what song you wanna listen to?" She releases a slow breath at hearing him, thankful for whatever made her get him to answer her call. He doesn't say more and silence sets in. Her fight with Amelia comes crashing back to her and she sniffles.

"Hi," Her voice sounds broken as she speaks, not being able to say more for fear she will actually break down. She rubs at her eyes and takes another deep breath to calm herself.

"Hey," He says back, softer, gentler. Tears are threatening to come down. She sniffles a few more times, not wanting to full on cry for him to hear. A small part hopes he doesn't know it's her but she knows he recognizes her by now. Hopefully.

"Can you play a song for me?" She forces the question out quickly to not let her voice crack as much as it could. She grips the phone tight.

"Yeah I can, yeah just.. Hold on a moment." She nods her head even though he can't see. It gives her time to blow her nose and hear him change the song. She's confused, thinking he hung up when his voice comes back to her.

"Hey are you alright?" He asks. She sniffles once more.

"Not really," A choked laugh comes out as she tries to make light of the situation. He sighs on the other end of the line.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" He offers and she finds a smile coming to her face. They have only talked in passing maybe six times now, but just the idea of him willing to listen between songs is nice enough.

"It's my sister. I'm not really ready to talk about it," She sighs out honestly, now feeling guilty for wasting his time. He makes a grunt like noise in response.

"Well hey, what song did you want to hear? I can slip it in soon." She runs a hand through her hair, thinking of a song to play. She didn't actually think of one, just wanted to hear some comfort.

"Maybe something Owl City?" She suggests and he laughs lightly, rattling off a few titles they have on record for her to pick between.

"Enchanted sounds nice right now," She says. He scoffs and she smiles softly.

"That one is so slow though."

"But it reminds me of you," She says easily and not fully regretting her words even though they are slightly embarrassing. It's a little quiet and then he sighs.

"You have no idea how many songs make me think of you." He covers up his sad tone with a laugh. The song overhead is coming to an end and Madeline doesn't want to take him from his job any longer.

"Thank you," She whispers. A small smile is on her face now and she feels just a little better with his distraction.

"Anytime birdie," He says. The line goes dead and her heart pounds just a little at the silly nickname. It's a typical thing for him to call his night listeners 'birds' but it sounds cute when he calls her that. She tries to take her mind off the fight and more on the facts while she cleans. She's able to smile easier when customers come in later, no longer feeling super weighed down. She feels even lighter when the song she requested comes over the speaker with a special after comment just for her.

"Feel better birdie, it'll all be okay." She doesn't think he understands just how much better she actually feels.


	11. Chapter 11

Amelia doesn't want to go to work. One of the first times in such a long time, she doesn't want to see her sister either. She loves working with Maddie, absolutely. The other day though still burns inside her mind. Of course she regretted every word she said a few hours after she had gone home, but that didn't stop the fact that Maddie didn't even seem open to changes or suggestions about the whole party idea. It would be cool to do, and she has no idea how her sister ever managed to figure out she wanted to have more time to get to know Ivan. Psychic or something.

She sighs and opens the door to the shop, spotting Madeline finagling with the machine, cleaning it or making coffee, she's not sure her sister knows it's her that has come inside. She goes to the back without a word, barely locking eyes with Madeline to know she knows she's there. The awkwardness only get worse from then on out. They work silently next to each other, not asking for certain items that the other could easily get for them. It's cold.

Amelia doesn't like it. She hates not being able to talk with Maddie, the one person she's told every stupid thing she's ever thought of since she started speaking. The apologies get lost on her tongue, not knowing how to word the different sentences that she wants to say, needs to say. Maybe Madeline is right, maybe she is a coward.

Lovino makes it to the front of the line and Maddie already has his typical coffee order ready. Amelia rings him up and tries to smile. Lovino pauses with his coffee halfway to his mouth. He glances between the two of them and lets out a disgusted sigh. He points to the table nearest the counter.

"Sit." He commands. Amelia jumps at his command. For the first time that day her and Madeline look at each other, both confused at Lovino's order. She looks down quickly.

"Now," Lovino commands again and they both shuffle from around the counter to go sit at the table. Amelia shifts in her seat as Lovino sits down with them, chugging a gulp of his piping hot coffee. She glances up at his scowling face but doesn't say anything. Suddenly he points at her.

"Shut up," He says. She glares at him and almost speaks to negate his comment when he turns his accusing finger to Madeline.

"Talk," He leans back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table. Madeline shifts at the sudden attention on her. She sighs and sniffles.

"I didn't mean to snap at you," She whispers. Amelia swallows down the lump in her throat.

"You're not a coward." She takes a shaky breath and glances over at Madeline who looks about to cry.

"I don't really know why I freaked out about the party idea. It just. It was so sudden," Madeline hangs her head a little more and Amelia drops hers too.

"I should have asked you," Amelia says back to her. Really the party idea had been spur of the moment for her. She rushed to get ideas down on paper and then to print out flyers. It didn't even occur to her that it might not be the best idea. Somehow she thought Madeline would be all for it.

"It wasn't fair to spring that on you," She tacks on as an afterthought. She takes another peek at Madeline who still looks to be on the verge of crying. She whines and lunges at her sister to wrap her in a tight hug.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO YELL AT YOUUUUUU," She cries out and nuzzles farther into Madeline's neck. She lets out a pouty noise when Madeline laughs lightly at her antics, petting her head lightly to accept the sort of apologies they made to each other.

"So party," Lovino prompts and takes another sip of his coffee. Amelia grimaces and takes out one of the flyers she shoved in her pocket. Madeline takes it and flattens it out on the table.

"I'm not comfortable hosting a party for so many people," She says. Amelia twists up her nose in thought. She should have thought about her sister's disposition for large groups.

"Well maybe we can make it a staff and friends thing?" She offers with a hopeful smile. Lovino raises an eyebrow at that.

"We could do it that Sunday when most people are out instead of the actual day so this way it's easier on customers?" Madeline shrugs her shoulders. Amelia makes a 'hmm' noise in thinking. Most students are leaving to go home for the winter break, so it'd be less detrimental on their income and Monday's are pretty slow so they could open later to make it easier on everyone yet again.

"That'll work, I can make new signs so people know what days and times we're changing? Maybe we can still do a celebratory deals thing to bring in revenue on the actual day," Her mind is crunching numbers. If they bring in enough extra from the actual day sales then they could easily afford to miss the revenue possibly gained from the few people who come in during those late night hours.

"I'd be okay with a small thing, just friends, to relax," Madeleine sighs and rubs at her face. Amelia puffs up her cheeks. Madeline has been up for about 12 hours now, it's getting close to her actual sleeping time. She smiles brightly and wraps an arm over her sister's shoulder.

"It'll be totally fun with just a small group!" She cheers and shakes her sister just a little. Madeline manages a laugh and smiles up at her, their argument fixed and forgotten.

"So when you said Ivan writes me letters what were you talking about?" Amelia whispers to her. Madeline snorts and Lovino rolls his eyes.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard those super ridiculous love letters over the radio?" He barks at her though not unkindly. She blinks at him and then realization hits.

"Ohhhhhhh wow," She says and Madeline laughs at her. Amelia covers her face with her hands.

"That's so embarrassing," She whines. They pick themselves up after Amelia is done having a mini freak out. With one huge hug Madeline goes home and Amelia is left waiting to see if Ivan is going to come in. They talked about a small list of invitees and she wouldn't deny wanting to ask him to come. Madeline wants to invite the non emergency line officer that drives her home during the early mornings, and Lovino barely managed to convey the message he wants to invite some random person he's been seeing. Though when Madeline figured that out she teased him greatly.

Amelia hums to herself, now in a far better mood after talking things out with her sister. Ivan walks in and she feels the energy bubbling through her.

"Hey there big guy, what can I get for you?" She asks though she knows his order by heart now. Ivan smiles uneasily and fiddles with his wallet in his hands.

"Just a small coffee, please," He says as best he can and Amelia smiles brightly, ringing up his order. She glances over her shoulder as he takes a seat in his typical spot. She makes the coffee carefully, not wanting to spill as she walks it over to him like everytime before. This time though, she takes a seat across from him as well as putting his coffee down in front of him.

"So hey I wanna ask you something," She says with bubble of excitement inside her. She nearly giggles at the first flash of panic that crosses Ivan's face, like she might ask him something weird.

"Me and Maddie and the other workers are going to hold a little party chill out thing on Sunday," She says in explanation, wondering if Ivan will piece together what she's going to ask before she actually says it. He tilts his head and blinks dumbly at her and she laughs.

"I was wondering if you'd like to come? With me specifically?"

* * *

He's gotten so much better at talking to her. He can now order his coffee without dropping all of his change or stuttering over his words too badly. He still has to think about what he's going to say twelve times even though it's the same sentence he says everytime he talks to her.

"Hey there big guy, what can I get for you?" He blinks at her and the bright smile on her face as if he didn't understand the question she just asked him. There's only one thing she could have asked but still it takes him a moment to swallow down his nerves to talk.

"Just a small coffee, please," He forces out. She giggles and rings up his order. He pays easily as he can, not turning back as he heads to his chosen table in the corner to look out the window. There's not many people in the café this early. He's been able to come in later, now having the ability to ask Amelia herself for coffee instead of Madeline. That push to talk had been a terrible event, but in the end it turned out okay.

He hears the steps of Amelia getting closer and prepares himself to thank her but instead of going back to the counter like she normally does she takes the seat across from him with confidence. He stares at her in confusion once more. She smiles up at him and he's a little caught off guard by the sweetness in her smile, still surprised she gives him such an expression.

"So hey I wanna ask you something." Ivan goes into a brief panic mode. Is she going to ask him something weird? He doesn't know how to word normally, there's no way he could answer a question on the spot. She nearly giggles at him and his embarrassment grows more.

"Me and Maddie and the other workers are going to hold a little party chill out thing on Sunday," She tells him. He tilts his head, not understanding why she's telling him this unless for some other reason.

"I was wondering if you'd like to come? With me specifically?" She asks. His reaction is immediate. He can feel the heat rising to his cheeks and eyes going wide when the question registers in his head. He lifts his hands to his scarf and hides his face in the cloth. She asked to hangout with him, specifically, to go somewhere. Questions burn inside his brain and her laugh echoes around him. He jumps a little when he feels her next to him.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd like it if you did," She reassures him. He gulps and moves his scarf just enough to peek at her. She kneeling down next to his leg, one hand placed on his knee to balance herself. That same bright smile on her face. His breathing is ragged and he realizes he can't talk. Instead he nods his head in a short jerky motion.

She giggles happily and stands. Just as he thinks he's out of the clear she leans over to kiss his cheek sweetly. His eyes trail after her as she walks back to the counter, a complete starstruck look on his face. He absent mindedly places a hand over his cheek, still feeling the press of her lips on him. When she notices him staring at the counter, she winks at him. He jolts in his seat, turning back to his coffee and trying not to hide his face in his scarf again.

Very slowly he drink his coffee, an undeniable happiness bursting inside him. A small smile comes to him, mind now full of happy thoughts that she actually wants to do something with him. That is until he realizes he now has to prepare to be social with her in super close proximity for a whole night. He has plenty of time to panic over what to do later. Right now he just wants to enjoy the idea that when he takes small glances over at her, that she's already smiling and looking back.


	12. Chapter 12

Madeline spends most of the week explaining to customers that it's a private event being held for the co-workers to enjoy a night together. Some of them offer kind comments, while others just shrug in acceptance that they will not be open to the public Sunday night. Not many people come in at that time anyway so it's not that big of a deal to most of them. The later time on Monday does affect them, but no one complains, at least to their faces.

She managed to talk to Berwald a few days ago, telling him about the party and his invite as thanks for all the help he has given her. Him and his wife Tina came in earlier to accept the invite and get sweet coffees. She felt a little on the spot when they asked if it would be okay if they brought their friend Lene and her boyfriend with to get them out of working. Alice made the decision that they could so Madeline wouldn't have to. She had no problem with that and Amelia surely didn't mind more people attending the get together.

Amelia confirmed Ivan coming with her with the biggest damn smile on her face Madeline actually laughed at her smitten expression. Alice confirmed coming by herself, most of her friends already working or already invited. She did gripe about hiring a baby sitter for the night but only because it took her more effort to find one than usual. Felicia jumped for joy when she found out and told them she would come with her best friend Sakura and a few cakes to celebrate. Lovino grumbles and tells them he and his somewhat boyfriend will be there too.

For the most part, planning and preparations are easy to do. Not too many decorations and a more thorough cleaning of the machines is all they really have to do. Alice did a rigorous supply intake to make sure they have all the materials and her okay had been all Madeline needed to be okay with their supplies. There's only a small issue when Lovino gets a call from said somewhat boyfriend the day before the get-together is supposed to take place. They're lucky they got the call from him in time so they can make sure they have enough treats to go around.

"What do you want?" Lovino answers the phone not unkindly to those who know how unkind he can actually be. Madeline rolls her eyes and Amelia snorts at his callous attitude. There's a laugh heard from the other end so they know his words aren't taken badly.

"Ugh do they have to?" Madeline raises her eyebrows to the question asked and waves a hand to get Lovino's attention. He glances at her and rolls his eyes.

"Hold on-" He angles the phone away from his mouth. "Antonio wants to know if it's okay if his two other friends come and-" Lovino puts the phone back to his ear.

"What? Ugh," Lovino pulls the phone away from his head to make a disgusted expression at it. Madeline giggles. He eventually brings it back to his face.

"If his two other friends and his friend's little sister can come too," He tells them in a mocking tone. Madeline glances at Amelia and her sister shrugs. She doesn't entirely mind, but if they get more people it'll be a little too hectic for their small establishment. After a moment of thinking she shrugs too. Amelia faces Lovino.

"I don't care. The more the merrier I guess. Are they cool?"

"No." Lovino says instantly to her and talks back into the phone to let his boyfriend know it's okay if they come with an added condition that they can't be stupid. Amelia sputters into a laugh and nearly falls off her chair, using her momentum as an excuse to go clean the last machine for the night. Madeline covers her face with a hand and giggles softly.

"This'll be fun," Amelia says brightly from behind the counter. Madeline agrees. It'll be fun, if not chaotic, a thought wondering who Antonio's friends are.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Gilbert says from his spot on the desk, holding up a hand to stop his friend's ramblings. Antonio smiles at him with Matthias sitting smugly in a chair next to him. Ivan stands in the doorway looking uncomfortable at the confrontation.

"You three managed to be invited to the same damn party, and me and Franny had no idea?" He jerks his thumb to Francis sitting next to him in a swivel chair with a pouty expression on his face. Antonio and Matthias laugh easily while Ivan sighs and looks farther away from him. Gilbert gasps hard.

"What the hell man?!" He throws his arms up staring at the three of them in turn. Antonio just shrugs in surrender to the small anger Gilbert throws at him. Francis sighs.

"Normally it's me throwing parties. Where is this being held anyway?" He asks. Gilbert crosses his arms and this time Ivan speaks.

"It is not so much a party as a small friendly get together. No alcohol will be served," He narrows his eyes at Francis who has a tendencies to make his parties wild. Mathias cackles to himself, pulling out his phone.

"Lene told me it's at a coffee shop Tina normally goes to. Cute place," Is his input to the situation reading off a text from his girlfriend. Lene is always trying to get him out of the building and hanging out with people she can actually stand is good in his book. It doesn't make Gilbert feel any better and by the sassy eyebrow raise Francis does, it doesn't make him feel better either. Antonio laughs again and now pulls out his phone.

"I'll call Lovi to see if it's okay you come," He says as if that's the simple answer to solve all their problems. Gilbert nearly negates that suggestion, not wanting to intrude on a get together, but Antonio is already holding the phone to his ear with the dial tone barely audible. He sighs and smacks a hand to his face. If it's a party he and Francis will have to pre-record to make sure their show stays consistent. It wouldn't be the worst thing to not go.

"Lovi~ I was wondering if my friends could come too? Only two of them," Antonio says happily to the angry voice that answered him. Gilbert's face scrunches up at the lack of hello that came from either end but Antonio not being bothered by it is good at least. He leans back as best he can, giving Francis a shrug in response to the weird look on his face. Francis then scrambles on the desk.

"Oh please Lovi can they?" Antonio pleads happily over the phone. Gilbert rolls his eyes and jerks when Francis taps him on the leg. He makes a confused face at the calendar Francis shoves into his face. Gilbert's eyes scan it and he jumps when he catches what Francis is trying to tell him.

"Shit Toni!" Gilbert shouts though there's no need. Antonio tilts his head at his outburst.

"My sister is coming to visit that weekend," He says quickly. He totally forgot, thankfully Francis remembered. His sister wanted to visit him at the studio, having found some time to get out of her busy schedule. It's been so long since she's seen his work place, let alone him in general. He can't just ditch her to go be with people he doesn't know.

"Oh, okay!" Antonio says with glee. He presses his mouth to the phone.

"Hey Lovi! Is it okay if one of their little sisters comes too?" Gilbert grimaces with his entire body as Antonio interrupts his boyfriend to ask that question. That wasn't his intention in saying that. He's already imposing so much by going without proper invite in the first place and now with his sister coming to visit, maybe he shouldn't go. He's fully prepared to spend the night in when Antonio hangs up and smiles brightly.

"It's totally okay! They'd don't mind at all!" He cheers with a clapping of his hands. Though not entirely believing that, Gilbert sighs in relief. He'll have to record a show for that night but it won't be too hard. Plus taking his sister to something chill would be nice for the both of them. Maybe. He runs his hand through his hair and texts his sister, hopefully she'll be up for whatever he might have just gotten them into. He smirks when she volunteers to make a desert to thank the people hosting the party for letting them go on short notice. This'll be fun.


	13. Chapter 13

Gilbert bangs his hands on the steering wheel recklessly, still driving pretty well despite the fact. Louise is next to him, not necessarily headbanging but definitely bobbing her head to the music and singing along. If there's one thing that he's super glad to have in common with his sibling it's their music taste. His excitement when he learned she liked the same super heavy metal made him scream and twirl her around in circles.

"So where are we going exactly?" She asks, sitting up more in her seat. Gilbert shrugs in response.

"Some coffee place? I don't know Antonio said they have good drinks there so," He shrugs again and Louise makes a small 'oh' face. They don't talk much on the drive over. Every now and then Gilbert will ramble off something totally random while Louise interjects snarky comments about him not taking care of himself that make him laugh.

His little sister isn't the most sociable of people and he's a little worried she won't have a good time. Hopefully there will be a good number of people so she won't be left on her own. He'd hate to subject her to that. He glances over at her looking out the window with a tray with mini cherry pies on her lap. He's pretty proud of her, dropping out of college to join the military and work up the ranks to be highly respected even at a young age. He smirks to himself as if he had nothing to do with her dropping out to go pursue a better dream.

They pull into a small college like town, both of them looking out the window at the easy atmosphere of the place. He pulls into a parking space a little ways from a small lit up building on the corner. Louise takes a deep breath and looks at him. He smirks and ruffles her short blonde hair to annoy her and take her mind off the idea of being surrounded by new people that they barely know.

They bump each other playfully and cross the street, stopping momentarily when they spy Ivan walking towards them. Gilbert waves to him and he meekly raises a hand to wave in return.

"Didn't want to go in alone?" Gilbert questions as they get closer to the door. Ivan nods his head. Gilbert can't really blame him. Though Ivan had a direct invite, he and Louise are tacked on the end. He flashes his sister a quick smirk, to which she rolls her eyes, and opens the door.

"I can so lift him up! Just you wait when he- IVAN!" Gilbert jerks at the sudden shout of his boss's name. Ivan looks positively flustered if the quick look at him gives away anything. A small girl with bright blue eyes stomps her way over. Gilbert and Louise have just enough sense to move. The girl dips down and puts her arms behind Ivan lifting him off the ground. His boss lets out an undignified squeak and throws his arms around her shoulders to not fall completely.

"What did I tell you?!" The girl shouts towards the counter. There's another girl over there with her head in her hand.

"Amelia please put him down," She says tiredly with a slight British accent gracing her words. The girl, Amelia he assumes, scoffs and waltzes forward with Ivan still in her arms.

"What if I want to carry him the whole night huh? What you gunna do?" She shouts and pulls Ivan just a little closer. He can't help it. Gilbert bursts into a side splitting laughter, nearly falling over when Louise pushes him to shut up. He wipes a tear from his eye as Francis and Antonio come over, having arrived before them. Antonio has his arm around the waist of a smaller man.

"Lovi this is-"

"Don't call me that," The other interrupts quickly. Gilbert raises an eyebrow at the snark but Antonio keeps talking like it didn't happen.

"This is my other co-worker Gilbert, and his little sister Louise," Antonio introduces them. Gilbert sticks out his hand politely and Louise follows suit.

"Lovino. I have a little sister too," He says, introducing his actual name in the process. He lurches forward when a girl with long brown hair jumps on his back. She lets out a bubbly giggle.

"That's me! I'm Felicia and-" She gasps suddenly and climbs off her brother. Gilbert snorts when she grabs Louise's free hand and pulls it close to her.

"You're so pretty~" Felicia's eyes are wide and star like. Gilbert has to bite his lip to keep from laughing again. He's barely ever seen his sister stunned to silence. Of course she's had silent processing of his stupidity, but this is flustered quiet.

"I- Do not- What?" Louise sputters out. Felicia giggles again and pulls her farther into the café, dropping the pies to the counter in the process, and towards a small girl in the corner with short black hair. She laughs into her hand and introduces herself to Louise. Gilbert breathes a sigh of relief at his sister being able to talk to someone else here.

"I'm Alice," The one who told Amelia to put down Ivan comes over, holding out her hand to shake. Gilbert reaches for it but Francis beats him to it, taking Alice's hand and kissing it like a gentleman. He winks at her.

"Ugh," Alice deadpans to him and takes her hand back. Antonio giggles at the disturbed look on his face.

"I work here along with Felicia and Amelia," Alice says and turns back to the counter. Gilbert follows further in. Alice gets him a small cup of water to tide him over.

"We're waiting on Maddie before making hot chocolate and coffees," Amelia says. She has since put Ivan down and is now standing in front of him and leaning against him comfortably. Ivan has a small smile on his face. He's excited by the thought of hot chocolate while Lovino lets out a small exclamation of coffee.

" _We're_  only waiting because you don't want to make the hot chocolate." Alice snaps at her. Amelia laughs loudly.

"But  _she_ makes it so much better," Is her response. He smirks when Alice doesn't have a comeback to that, only sighing in resignation. He's excited for that.

For a while Gilbert mingles, meeting Louise's new friends a little more and talking to Alice who is utterly unimpressed by any and all lines Francis throws at her, responding with snappy remarks to shut him up. Talking with Amelia and Lovino is fun, since Amelia is unashamed and Lovino doesn't give a shit. Antonio and Ivan are so smitten. Matthias and his girlfriend come in with a couple he's never seen before but thinks might be Tina and her husband. He and Matthias get in a small conversation then Lene pulls him away to go meet other people.

Gilbert finds himself leaning up against a wall with a smile on his face, watching his sister and friends get along with those around them. He sips his water wondering when the magical hot chocolate fairy will come. He bobs his head to the music overhead, smirking when he catches a snippet of what's being said.

"What are the odds," He muses to himself as he hears his own voice being played. He shakes his head and downs the rest of his water as the door opens once more. The cup nearly falls from his hand.

"Hey sorry I'm late, my alarm didn't go off," The girl says as she sweeps inside. There's a collective cheer from the other residents and she goes behind the counter, immediately pulling at the machines behind it. Gilbert feels frozen in his spot. There's no way.

"I told you those late night shifts will mess with your schedule," Alice chides, beginning to help her make drinks. The girl laughs and her long blonde hair falls in waves down her back. Gilbert has to make a conscious effort to close his jaw when she angles just enough for him to see her face.

"I like the late shift thank you," She teases and continues to pull at the machines, making warm drinks for them to share. Felicia comes from the back room with small plates balanced on her arms with small cakes and pie pieces on them. Gilbert angles his head to see around her and through the other people to see her at the counter. She's making hot chocolate and Alice the coffee, Amelia detangles herself from Ivan to hand out the beverages to the other guests.

Carefully he weaves around them all to lean on the countertop, listening to her sing along to the song on the radio softly. She's so close.

Everyone has their drink and she starts another cycle in case people want seconds. She turns around and nearly drops the mug she's holding to the ground at seeing him there. He can feel a smirk grow on his face as she covers her mouth with her hands. He takes in her features, still as adorable as the night she drove away from him. Slowly she lowers her hands, he stands upright and opens his mouth to speak.

"HEY Maddie how many times do you think I can bench press Ivan?" Gilbert turns his head to Amelia, her arm over Ivan's shoulder as he carries her in his arms. He snaps his eyes back to her when she giggles.

"Find out later, not in here, there is no room," She says simply and turns back to the machines. Gilbert smirks at her when she faces him again, handing him a steaming cup of what he hopes is hot chocolate. He takes it, not reacting too much when his fingers brush hers. She smiles shyly and waits for him to try it. He leans back on the counter, a smile on his face, and takes a sip of his beverage.

"Holy shit this is good," He muses loudly and downs half of it. The mug is just put when she launches herself at him.

* * *

Madeline wakes up and yawns, rubbing at her eyes lazily. She twists on her bed, stretching some and then fumbling to the ground. She gathers up the clothes she thought would be good for the get together and heads to take a shower. She stays a bit longer than normal, letting the water wake her up more so. There's going to be a few people she doesn't know at the shop, but no one who's a super stranger so she should be fine.

She flops the towel on her head and rubs it about to dry her hair in a not so helpful way. She picks at the clothes on her body, turning around to make sure they fit properly. She sighs and looks at her phone to check the time. Her eyes widen and suddenly she's rushing. Her alarm was set to go off a two hours before. The party started half an hour ago at least. She's so late. In her haste she manages to shoot a quick text to Amelia telling her where she is, but she doubt her sister will see it.

With her bag flung over her shoulder, she's nearly running to the café. She couldn't call Berwald to give her a ride because he's already there. She curses softly under her breath, only slowing down when she spots the cafe, lit up and full of people. She lets out a sigh, slowing her breathing and opening the door.

"Hey sorry I'm late, my alarm didn't go off," She says by way of explanation when she gets inside. She can pick out the voices of her friends cheering, happy she's there. She doesn't miss the exclamation of her sister asking her to start warm beverages. She rolls her eyes and drops her bag behind the counter, pulling at the machines as quick as she can to get hot drinks out to their guests. She catches sight of Felicia slipping into the back to plate the small desserts. Alice comes up next to her to help her get the machines rolling.

"I told you those late night shifts will mess with your schedule," Alice gives her a small scolding but Madeline can see the smile tempted to come out. She laughs lightly and rests an arm on the shelf to face her co-worker and friend. Felicia winks at her happily and goes to the dining area, her arms lined with plates of small sweets.

"I like the late shift thank you," She twists up her nose playfully at the scoff Alice does back at her while pulling down cups to fill up. They work in tandem, Madeline and Alice filling up the mugs while Amelia moves to hand them out to their guests. Alice finally takes one for herself and Madeline starts up the machines one last time to make sure people have extras if they want more. She'll start another cycle later when she's sure they are running out. She smiles when she hears the song playing over heard, singing along softly as she takes a mug to pour herself a drink.

She turns around to see everyone smiling but the person leaning on the counter catches her attention. She inhales sharply and has to grip her cup so she doesn't drop it at recognizing them. With a clink she puts the cup down to cover her mouth with her hands because she can not believe it's actually him smirking up at her. He's just as attractive as the last time. He stands and she lowers her hands to ask him what he's doing there when she's interrupted.

"HEY Maddie how many times do you think I can bench press Ivan?" Her eyes snap to her sister, looking a little too smug in Ivan's arms as he carries her easily. A giggle finds it's way out of her at her sister's antics.

"Find out later, not in here, there is no room," She says simply and turns back to the machines. She pulls a handle at fills the mug with hot chocolate and wordless hands it out to him. His fingers brush against hers when he takes it and she does her best to not react to harshly. She can't stop the smile on her face as she he tries the drink she made. Her mind is buzzing and her heart is racing because that's him, in her cafe, drinking her hot chocolate.

"Holy shit this is good," He says and for a moment looks dazed at how good it is. She can't help it. Before she loses her sense to vault over the counter she slips around the side and just as he puts his cup down she's in his arms. Her hands are clinging to him, something mixed between a laugh and a cry escapes her. Easily, so damn easily he's holding her back, pressing to her and holding on like they might never see each other again. Like they would have that night so long ago. Barely she pulls back to look up at him, giggling as she does. The smile he gives all to her is breathtaking and she pushes up to bury in his neck again.

"What the fuck?" Madeline jerks back in time to see Lovino push Alice out of his way to put a hand in Madeline's face. She only giggles at her best friend's reaction and she can feel him snickering into her hair, refusing to let go.

"I'm gunna say this again, what the fuck?" He gestures his hand wildly between the two of them. She covers her face with a hand, trying not to get too caught up in the stare her sister is sending her as well.

"Gilbert!" Madeline turns her attention to some man who apparently has been invited. He tries, and fails, to put his arm around Alice's shoulder.

"What happened to that little lady you had a crush on?" He asks. For a second Madeline's heart breaks but he pulls her just a little tighter and laughs once more. It's a secure hold he has on her and she leans into it.

"Maddie you have legit been thinking non stop about that radio dude what are you doing?" Amelia asks her finally, getting fed up not having answers, and being ignored. Madeline places her head on his shoulder and sighs, enjoying the absolute confusion going on around them.

"Ohhhh," Some other person Madeline doesn't know comes closer. He places his arm around Lovino's waist and it clicks who he is. Madeline has heard just enough about Antonio to know he's a decent person.

"Oh that's so cute!" He coos. Those around them give Antonio weird looks. He smiles at Francis and elbows him.

"It's romantic? Fate? Coincidence? Why aren't you saying anything?" He asks, now getting confused. He glances between them all not understanding. Lovino pinches his cheek.

"What are you talking about?" He snaps. Antonio gestures at her but only makes pained noises at Lovino's grip on him. Madeline giggles and turns to face him, he smiles down at her and kisses her cheek sweetly.

"Brother is that the girl you told me about in the car?" A tall girl behind the cluster around her speaks up. She has one arm occupied by Felicia hanging on her and the other over Felicia's friend Sakura's shoulder. Madeline feels her cheeks getting warm at hearing he talks about her. He cackles in her ear and then everyone else gets it.

She hides her face in his chest and he in her hair as the others coo. There's a small bit of yelling trying to get out the details of how they both ended up at the café in the first place. Lovino is a little angry Antonio never told him where he works, otherwise they could have done this sooner. Madeline just smiles, him looking down at her with wonder in his eyes. The rest of the night he is beside her, holding her hand, and never letting go for longer than they can both help it.

The last of the introductions are made and Madeline finds Francis and Antonio to be fun. She recognizes their voices from the radio. Matthias and Lene are sweet, even if Lene elbows Matthias every time he gets too loud. They share cake and coffee and hot chocolate until late in the night.

"It's so weird to hear my own voice over the radio," He says lazily. She hums in response and sips her drink. She's fairly snug with him pressed up behind her and arms around her stomach.

"I wouldn't want to listen to anything else," It's a simple response but one that gets her a kiss on the cheek. Berwald and Tina are the first to leave, getting tired and not used to staying up so late. Lene and Matthias follow not long after. Felicia is practically begging to let Louise and Sakura spend the night. Lovino doesn't care as Antonio is spending the night with him too. Gilbert gives his blessing and a promise to pick up her up later. Alice bids her goodnight and Francis follows her out. Madeline and Amelia share a quick look, one that turns a little devilishly when Francis doesn't come back.

"She either murdered him or took him home," Amelia says taking a seat in Ivan's lap. He smiles and cuddles into her.

"Oh she took him home," Madeline says from behind the counter. He's next to her, pressed into her side with a new cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Amelia scoffs and snuggles deeper into Ivan.

"How do you know that?" It's Madeline's turn to scoff.

"Alice loves someone to fight for her. He was trying the whole night and then followed her out. There's no way." She says a matter-o-factly. Amelia rolls her eyes to her sister's ramblings.

"If you don't believe me check her neck for hickies when you work tomorrow," Madeline sips her hot chocolate. Amelia makes a disgusted noise, then agrees to do just that. They enjoy the silence around each other, just enjoying the atmosphere of being next to someone.

"I'm going to head home," Amelia stands and stretches. Ivan makes a small displeased noise then Amelia holds her hand out to him. He blinks down at it confused, then up at her. She laughs.

"I'm not leaving without you~" She winks at him and his face goes red. Madeline sticks her tongue out at them waving when they leave. She follows and locks the door behind them, not needing it unlocked anymore. She turns back to the counter and covers her mouth with a hand to not snort too loudly. He's on the counter, posing dramatically.

"I'm sexy right," He gives her an over exaggerated wink. She shakes her head and laughs lightly.

"Get off the counter," She says and goes back to him. He hops off it and meets her halfway. Gently he slides his hands into hers. He sighs and closes his eyes.

"What's your name?" He asks and she can't help but laugh. She tries to bring her hands to cover her face but ends up bringing his up as well. Finding them to be in the right position she kisses one softly.

"Madeline," She says looking up at him. He smiles and steps a little closer.

"Gilbert," He tells her. They've heard their names tossed around all night, but to here it from him, like she should have so many nights ago, just feels right. She smiles brightly and he lets go of her hands to wraps his arms loosely around her waist. She places her head on his chest, bringing her arms up to hook around his neck. They sway back and forth to the song playing overhead. She giggles crazily when he announces the song that comes up next.

"It's still weird," He says with a disgusted tone. She shakes her head against him and pulls him a little closer. Slowly and surely he begins to hum out the song. She joins in lightly. She lets out a small squeak when he pulls back to twirl her under his arm with a wild smirk on his face.

She can't stop the laughter that comes out at dancing around her cafe late in the night with him. It's a perfect moment. He pulls her close once more his own laughter pouring out. She wipes at her face to get rid of happy tears that came out, smiling up at him. He releases a huff of breath and leans down to kiss her.

Though it starts soft, it turns desperate, clinging to each other a little more than necessary but so worth it. They part with a puff of air and smile goofily to each other. With a few more softer kisses shared they clean up the cafe together, wiping down tables and cleaning the dishes that piled up.

"Your sister makes really good sweets," She muses with a plate of the last 2 cherry pies in her lap. Gilbert snickers a the comments.

"She'd blush like crazy to hear you say that." He winks at her and she just rolls her eyes. She directs him to her small apartment and where to park.

"So yeah I'll see you-" His words are cut off by her pulling him close to kiss him again. His hands get tangled in her hair. She pulls back and bites her lip.

"You're not leaving," She says forcefully. A smirk crosses his features and he turns off the car, following her up to her apartment. With a quick flick of her wrist the door swings open and she releases a relieved breath of air at the general cleanliness of her apartment. He bounces on the couch as she brings him more hot chocolate and covers them with blankets to listen to music together. She leans her head on his shoulder as he tells her all about the music he ruined for her, only stopping to kiss him silly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taadaa, hope this was worth the wait


	14. Chapter 14

Alice sits up, running a hand through her long hair. She didn't even drink last night and yet she already feels the regret sneaking into her system. It's not unlike her to bring someone home every so often, but it had been a while. This one however took any chance he could to talk or be near her, spitting out lame pick up line after feeble attempts of woo-ing. Then he had to follow her outside and say stupid words and. She actually really likes his determination. It's a very amiable quality. She glances behind her at the man she-

Her eyes widen in panic at seeing him gone. Part of her wants to feel relieved at not having to deal with an awkward morning interaction, but if he ran into who she hopes he didn't. She clambers to her feet and out of bed. Hastily she puts on the closest clean clothes she has and makes her way to the kitchen. She thought she knew panic before but this is unreal. He's there in the kitchen, talking and happily conversing with Peter. The 4 year old has no idea what is going on.

"Ah bonjour mon cher," That flamboyant git says with a gentle smile. Peter turns to her and waves happily with his face stuffed full of food she knows she did not make. She sniffs and the sweet scent fills her senses. Cautiously she comes closer, trying not to outwardly glare in front of her child. She kisses him on the head quickly.

"What you eating there tiny one?" She asks but still keeping her mild glare on the man at her stove. He smirks and goes back to his job while Peter bounces in his seat.

"Francis made craps!" He proudly holds out a small rolled up pancake filled with jelly. Francis twitches at the mispronunciation and Alice laughs softly at the reaction. She ruffles her boy's hair and goes to stand by Francis, hissing in his ear for only him to hear.

"What are you doing?" She forces a smile onto her face to play nice in front of Peter, not really wanting him to see her in an angry fit. This isn't the first time Peter has seen one of her mistakes, and it probably won't be the last, but it's embarrassing and awkward when her late escapades decide to introduce themselves. Francis hums and kisses her cheek with too smug of a smile.

"Breakfast," He whispers back to her like they're playing some sort of game. She flat out glares at him, then he pulls up a plate of crepes to hold under her nose. The smell of food hits her hard and her stomach growls without her permission. She glares down at the traitorous organ and takes the plate from the insufferable man. With a huff she plops down next to her son and eats. Trying not to let her glare falter as the admittedly good food disappears.

"Mom can I go play trains?" Peter pulls on her oversized sweater impatiently. She smirks down at him and holds up her hands. He places them to her and she makes a thinking face.

"You're all sticky, wash first then you may," She turns back around as he cheers excitedly, nearly throwing his dish in the sink and breaking them in haste. She winces at the noise but thankfully they don't shatter. She should really get plastic ones. With a sigh she places a hand to her head to try and relieve the tension building.

"He's a sweet kid," Francis says, leaning up against the counter with his own plate of food in his hands, and surprisingly not smirking down at her when she glares at him. Another sigh escapes her and she leans back against her chair.

"He's wild," She says not unkindly. Her rambunctious boy is nothing but an over enthusiastic sweetheart that trips over his shoes sometimes. Cries often, and has an obsession with building forts out of blocks and blankets.

"Why are you still here?" She whispers a little sadly. Not that she doesn't like him, oh no she knows she got a small inkling of admiration for the man across from her, but she's going to have to explain him to Peter now and she doesn't want to have to see the confused and misunderstanding look on his face as he doesn't get that this man is not here to stay. Francis pauses in his eating to come closer to her, sliding into the seat Peter left open.

"Do you not want me to be?" Taking a risk he reaches out his hand to rest on hers. She flinches at the touch but allows it to continue. She turns away from him.

"It's not that I don't want you here, it's-"

"Then what's the problem?" He squeezes her hand and her eyes snap to it. It's such a homey gesture and something her past lovers, including Peter's father never gave to her. Especially since he up and left the moment he knew she carried Peter inside her.

"What am I going to tell him?" She hisses, jerking her head to where Peter is talking aloud to himself about being the strongest in the world with a small collection of towers surrounding him. She grits her teeth. Francis stays silent besides her, but he does reach his other hand up to hold hers between them.

"The truth perhaps?" He offers quietly. She scoffs at the idea.

"Tell him I had another one night stand after it worked out so well the last time?" She shakes her head as her words get choked up inside her. She swallows down the pit of sadness that wants to tumble out. For so long she's kept all the negative thoughts and angry comments locked away, all the sadness and the heavy feel that comes with being a single mother. She loves Peter with all her heart and she can take care of him all on her own.

"Is that what this is?" Her eyes lock on his at the sad tone. She never expected to see heartache in his features at the description of their night together. She didn't think it would be anything else. He never seemed like the kind to want to stick around, playing just his way of life. Carefully, like she might break if he handles her wrong, he takes her hand to his lips and kisses it sweetly. She can tell her face is reddening at the gentle action.

"I'd like to stick around, if you don't mind?" He gives her a slightly cheeky smile to the expression on her face. She pushes out a scoff to make the situation less awkward on herself. There's a small clatter and then Peter is running into the room. He grabs onto her shirt and tugs it impatiently.

"Mom mom mom!" He babbles out until she kneels down next to him and takes his hands in hers.

"Yes sweetie what is it?" He suddenly shut his mouth, glancing between her and Francis carefully. He cups a hand around his mouth to whisper to her though it is not quiet enough for only her to hear.

"Is it okay if Francis plays trains with me?" He asks. Alice opens her mouth to say something, but closes it, looking up to Francis expectantly, knowing he heard the question her little boy asked. Francis jerks at the sudden attention but covers it easily with a smile.

"Lead the way conductor," He throws out his hand and Peter bounces, grabbing the hand and yanking Francis down to his height and to the small living space. Alice watches them for a moment, then rubs at her face violently to get rid of the tears that want to make their way down her face. It's not that heartwarming that he wants to play with her child, or that he wants to stick around, or that Peter likes him. This isn't that story and she refuses to be a part of it.

* * *

Francis is wildly entertained by the boy in front of him. His imagination is sparkling with so many ideas he'd fill thousands of notebooks with them he's sure. This child has thought about every possible threat or attack that can befall one small block empire and has taken the necessary precautions to prepare for such attacks.

"Time to clean up Peter!" Alice yells from the kitchen are where she is cleaning up the dishes they used at breakfast. Francis finds himself smiling over in her direction, completely enamored by the grace she has.

"We haven't finished building yet!" The boy pouts back at her. Francis turns his head to the smaller one, smiling at him now, defiant and ready to protect his village with all he has. Francis chuckles.

"You have ten minutes!" Alice throws a small chiding look their way. Peter grabs his hand and pulls him closer, putting more blocks together and more quickly than before. Francis joins in, trying his best to make appropriate towers worthy of the small boy's praise.

"Are you leaving too?" Peter asks when Alice returns to her room, not long until the shower is running. Francis blinks up at the boy who seems indifferent by the question he asked. When he doesn't answer soon enough Peter goes on.

"Mom sometimes has others over, they all leave, they don't talk to me," Peter wipes at his nose but he is not crying. He turns his pudgy face up to Francis who inhales slowly at the question directed at him. In all honesty he'd rather not leave. Alice is a firecracker, a weakness in his own right. She's cold and collected on the outside, and yet so very passionate and warm to those close to her. He wants to know her more and more. Forget the parties and the random girls and guys. This one is interesting, this one makes him feel like he can do better.

"Would you like it if I stayed?" He asks gently, having already asked Alice something similar. Peter tilts his head to the side in thought. He hands Francis a bright red colored block and points to the tower beside him. Francis places the block on top making the tower complete.

"You make good food," Peter says and Francis smiles in pride. That's a good declaration of the boy wanting him around as any.

"I think mom likes you too, though she won't admit it," Peter sticks his tongue out and stands. He signals Francis to stand to and then the wreckage starts. At first he has no idea how to react when Peter makes a roar and knocks over a tower but the idea is simple enough. They stomp around dramatically, knocking over their hard work. Francis accidentally steps on a block and hisses lightly, sitting down. Not knowing for sure why he sat down, Peter takes his moment to tackle his new friend. Francis laughs when the boy is on top of him, roaring in his face in a mighty child way. He wraps his arms around Peter and stands, swinging the child around lightly.

They're both in a fit of giggles when they pause spotting Alice by the wall, a look of shock on her face. Francis pulls the boy upright so he doesn't have all the blood rush to his head.

"I like your boyfriend mom," Peter says with a giggle and pats Francis on the cheek. His eyes widen at the remark but a gentle smile comes to his face as he looks over the red tinted cheeks of Alice with enjoyment as the young boy continues to beam at him. He flicks his gaze between the two and shrugs since he has no idea what else to do.

Alice's eyes dance between the two of them, then with a small sigh she places a hand to her head to keep it from hanging too low. For a moment Francis thinks she might kick him out, which he has prepared himself for since he woke up. Someone like her is too good to be true. Instead she laughs lightly and looks back up to them with an overwhelmingly affectionate smile. She walks over to them and ruffles her boy's hair softly.

"Yeah me too," She pulls Peter out of his arms to place him on the floor. She gives him a small order to go get ready for the day and he tottles off. Francis blinks curiously at her, having nearly admitted to being more than just a simple fling. He gently wraps his arms over her shoulders to pull her back to him.

"Does this mean I can stay?" He whispers. She turns around to face him, a small scowl on her face. It doesn't stop him from feeling wildly happy when she pecks his lips quickly and heads back to her room. He runs a hand through his hair and follows her, totally using her shampoo when he borrows her shower.


	15. Chapter 15

Madeline smiles to herself, watching from the other side of the window as Gilbert talks into the microphone. This isn't the first time she's come to the station to see him work but this time it's special. She left work as soon as Amelia came in and understandably so. Her sister sent her off with a wink and a giggle.

She listens with her eyes closed to his voice over the speakers and the song that plays after, humming softly to herself and only opening her eyes when a small tap to the window in front of her is heard. She opens her eyes and laughs instantly at Gilbert smushing his face into the glass. She flicks his face lightheartedly and he sticks his tongue out at her to return to his chair and introduce the next song.

Antonio comes in with a bright smile on his face talking happily to her with about as much energy as Amelia in the mornings. It's not long after that Antonio is taking over hosting and Gilbert is free to go. He exits the sound booth and buries his face in her hair.

"Tired?" She asks quietly and he whines in response instead of answering. With another giggle they exist the station hand in hand to the car and back to their new apartment. They haven't lived there long, only a day or so now. A small kind of living space in between where they both work. It would have been more of a hassle had Ivan not coincidentally purchased a recording place closer to the town Maddie lives in. For emergencies and convenience he said, and she's not going to complain.

Gilbert is going off about things that happened while working as if she didn't listen to the show the whole night. She pulls into a parking space and they look up at the building in front of them with goofy smiles on their faces. She giggles and kisses him quickly, jumping out of the car to race him up the stairs. He beats her to opening the door, pulling her by the hand inside and twirling her around the barren living room floor.

Moving all of their stuff into together took less time than they thought, with Amelia's and Antonio's help it went by really quick. They didn't need a lot of furniture to move up which left a lot of strain off their backs. There are music CD's in the corner and pillows scattered all over the floor from the random spots they fell asleep at.

He pulls her close and her laughter is bubbling out, not stopping when he kisses her sweetly either. They dance around to some random music they manages to put together, singing loudly and badly to each other until Gilbert trips over a pillow and drags them both to the ground.

"What would you like for dinner?" She asks gently, lightly dragging a finger across his chest like painting a picture. He 'hmms', and looks to the clock, barely showing 8 in the morning.

"Are there still sandwiches left?" He gets a happy glint in his eyes and she pulls them both up to inspect the somewhat empty fridge, only to find it brimming with food she knows she didn't buy.

"Did you-" Her words stop as she sees the confused look on his face. She rummages through the contents, finding a small paper with Amelia's hand writing on it, explaining she put the spare key to good use. Madeline smiles at the note and then to the fully stocked fridge.

"Your sister has the best housewarming gifts ever," Gilbert muses on the floor with a decked out sandwich in his lap. Madeline joins him with a plate full of pancakes, enjoying the snuggles he gives the moment he can.

* * *

Gilbert has never been more content in his life. He has a kick ass job, a new kick ass place, and the most kick ass girlfriend in the world. He munches happily on his food, inhaling the aroma of her pancakes and being insanely jealous she only made some for herself. No matter how much he bumps into her or whines and makes super cute noises she does not budge. Which is impressive on its own, he' still mad though.

She nearly falls asleep on his shoulder an hour later as he's looking up new music to add to the lists for later. He smiles down at her, angling to give her a small kiss on her head. He smugly wiggles when she sighs happily at his action. It's not long after does he feel sleep pulling at him. He pushes away his computer, shaking her slightly to wake her. She whines and he nuzzles against her.

"Come on," He smiles sleepily and hoists her up in his arms, she mumbles something incoherent and he laughs lightly. He almost drops her on the way to the bed but manages to crash them both into it, snuggling and moving about to get comfy.

"Gotta thank Amelia tomorrow," Madeline whispers with a small slur. He brushes some hair out of her face and places another kiss to her lips.

"Yeah we can worry about that later," He tells her just as quietly. With another sigh she bundles up into his arms and he heartily returns the embrace. They've only been living together officially for 2 days max, and yet he feels like they've been living together for months. It's an easy pattern to fall next to her like this. He smiles and places another kiss on her head. Kissing a stranger nearly a year ago has to be one of the best ideas he's ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well thank you all for sticking with me through this story, thank you for all the support, and all the reviews. Just thank you, and I hope you enjoy


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